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Will Casey, spokesperson for the King County Department of Public Defense, confirmed five of those charged have been assigned counsel and was unsure about the sixth.

Defendants are now waiting about three weeks in Yakima County, down from about six weeks, according to Paul Kelley, that county’s director of the Department of Assigned Counsel.

While a suggestion to pause appointments for some indigent defendants is extreme, both Paul Kelley, who heads Yakima County’s Office of Assigned Counsel, and Yakima County prosecuting attorney Joe Brusic see it as a call to take the situation seriously.

The commission was assigned counsel from the state attorney general’s office and issued an interim report on its findings last year to Hogan and the leaders of the General Assembly.

The commission, which has been assigned counsel from the state attorney general’s office, can authorize the issuance of subpoenas for testimony.