The California Association of Public Defenders (CPDA) has announced that its Program of the Year award will go to the Marin County Public Defender’s Office for its innovative and collaborative program to aid clients and community members in obtaining their driver’s licenses, known as the DMV Liaison and Outreach Program. In its award letter, the CPDA recognized that the program had not only “helped to transform many lives,” but that it also improved “society at large by helping prevent crime.”

“The Public Defender’s Office is tremendously proud of the DMV Liaison Program and the recognition that the program has received,” said David Joseph Sutton, the Public Defender for Marin County. “The program is impactful because it is both restorative and preventative. We are working with individuals involved in the criminal legal system to restore their driving privileges, thereby avoiding future involvement while simultaneously working to ensure that our most vulnerable community members never enter the criminal legal system in the first instance.”

The program began in 2021, funded by grant money, when attorneys at the public defender’s office realized that clients who were charged criminally for driving without a license or driving on a suspended privilege for the most part wanted driver’s licenses, but were unable to navigate the process to obtain one. Finding one’s way through the DMV bureaucracy can be frustrating for any Californian. Add to that the fact that many clients do not speak or read or write in English, are new to this country, and lack computer skills, it was just too complex a task for some. Yet, given the limited public transportation options in Marin, clients were left with very few options to get to work and school and other destinations.

A large percentage of criminal cases in the county were for these types of charges, putting hundreds of people on probation every year and clogging up the courts, but there was no one in the system actually helping people through the process of getting their licenses. So our office stepped in and hired a DMV Liaison to work with clients directly.

Our DMV Liaison, Gina Gonzalez, uses official DMV software and data, access to which our office went through the process to obtain, to look up clients’ records and figure out what their next steps are to obtaining a license. Gonzalez helps clients enroll in DUI school if necessary, figure out how to pay any outstanding fines, and study for the test. She calls the DMV on clients’ behalf, accompanies some clients to their DMV appointments, and files documentation to the criminal court. She is also able to provide updates to the public defender working on the client’s case so this information can be used to negotiate dismissal or other beneficial outcomes with the DA’s office or the court.

“Gina Gonzalez’s assistance has been absolutely vital in aiding my clients with what is oftentimes a complicated, unfamiliar, and long process of getting their licenses, and she goes the extra mile,” said Deputy Public Defender Patricia Castillo. Gonzalez reports that “the people we have reached and helped are grateful and feel capable of doing more for themselves and their families.” Karen Cecilia Rizo Brard, who held the DMV Liaison position before becoming a bilingual investigator at the office, recalls how having a license, though “it might seem small…opens educational and employment opportunities that many of us usually take for granted.”

By the end of 2022, the DMV Liaison had successfully helped 40 clients obtain their driver’s licenses, with many more still receiving help toward that goal. During that year, the work of the Liaison also helped obtain improved criminal outcomes in at least 29 cases, including dismissals, diversions, reductions to infractions, etc. In 2023, we had even more success. The program helped 395 clients, 65 of whom received their driver’s licenses. This led to 21 dismissals of criminal charges and 13 cases where diversion was granted. The DMV Liaison position is now a full-time, grant-funded position. Sutton is seeking an extension of this position through the County’s current budget process.”

The Public Defender’s Office wanted to bring our success to the community at large, so in 2023, the office partnered with Legal Aid of Marin, Canal Alliance, and Dominican University to offer evening and weekend workshops for anyone to attend. Dhalma Suarez, Program Officer for Legal Aid of Marin, was instrumental in bringing this program about. Suarez reports: “We have observed individuals balancing multiple jobs, familial responsibilities, and community duties, yet they make time to attend our workshops and weekly Espacios de Apoyo (Spaces of Support) to study the DMV manual, practice tests, ask questions, and bravely engage with a system that often feels overwhelming.”

Dr. Lucia Leon, Assistant Professor of Latino Studies and Social Justice at Dominican, Dr. Lucia Leon, Assistant Professor of Latino Studies and Social Justice at Dominican, joined the program and brought her Latino Studies students as one-on-one, bilingual advocates for participants. "As a professor, I am proud of our students’ contribution to this project and the expansion of driving rights as an important civil rights and immigrant rights issue,” she said. “Through our weekly Espacios de Apoyo, student advocates work closely and build trusting relationships with community members to reduce the economic, language and social barriers to the obtainment of driver's license.”

Joana Castro Simonini, Director of Immigration Legal Services at Canal Alliance, not only provided the space for the community workshops but also helped to provide a key component of this work for participants, nearly all of whom are not United States citizens: an individualized consultation with an immigration attorney prior to initiating the process. This is an unfortunately necessary step as DMV does, in some circumstances, share information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The Public Defender’s Office will be presented with the award at the upcoming 54th Annual CPDA Convention. Past CPDA Program of the Year award winners have included the Los Angeles County Public Defender's Second-Chance Women’s Reentry Court Program, the Contra Costa County Public Defender's Early Representation Program, and the Alameda County Public Defender’s Immigration Representation Unit.

The Marin County Board of Supervisors plans to honor the Public Defender staff at an upcoming meeting.