Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter said Monday that he will investigate whether Recorder's Court Judge Rodney Harris overbilled the county while he worked as an indigent defense attorney.
Porter said he has asked to see the invoices Harris submitted in 2007 that the county chose to audit at random. A majority of those invoices couldn't be audited because they were so imprecise and illegible, according to a county audit made public Thursday.
Harris was appointed to the judgeship in January. The bills in question were submitted before that, when he was a court-appointed defense attorney. He did not return a call seeking comment Monday.
The audit found Harris would have to have worked between 60 and 70 hours a week for six years with no break to have rightfully earned the $1.1 million for which he billed the county between 2005 and 2010.
In a random sample of 14 days in 2007, there were three days where Harris billed more than 24 hours. Additionally, there were five days where he billed more than 21 hours.
Porter said the county's system of paying private attorneys at an hourly rate to represent poor criminal defendants, rather than paying salaried public defenders, is "an invitation to steal." He said it gives lawyers an incentive to delay cases to earn more money.
"You don't pay painters by the hour, you pay them by the job," Porter said.
Harris is not the first defense attorney to be accused of overbilling the county. In 2008, Christopher T. Adams was arrested on one count of criminal solicitation and 17 counts each of making false statements and theft by taking. The county alleges that Adams submitted false bills totaling about $40,000. Adams claimed he met with his clients or their families despite not doing so, Porter said. Adams is out on bond while awaiting trial.
Because of the way the system has been managed, Porter said he may not be able to prove Harris stole money from the county.
"But on the other side of that coin, his name may never be cleared," Porter said.
David Lipscomb, chairman of the Gwinnett County Indigent Defense Governing Committee, said the committee on Friday sent a letter to the county's Performance Analysis Division requesting it fully audit Harris' bills from 2005 to 2010. Failing that, the committee will ask Harris to open his files so it can try to sort out billing issues.
Lipscomb said his six-member volunteer committee hasn't been able to review the approximately 12,000 invoices it receives annually. The county, however, is adopting an electronic billing system that will prevent future overbilling because it flags irregular invoices, he said.
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