At first glance, the race to replace outgoing Palm Beach County Public Defender Carey Haughwout is between two criminal defense lawyers: Daniel Eisinger, the chief assistant public defender, and Adam Frankel, a former Delray Beach city commissioner.
It’s also a referendum of sorts for an office nationally recognized for advocacy.
Public defenders don’t simply represent people accused of a crime. They represent the poor, including people whose homelessness or untreated mental health needs contributed to their arrest. Poverty is the thread running through the caseload of a public defender’s office, and more than 50,000 of those cases land at the doorstep of the P.D.’s office each year in Palm Beach County.
During her 23 years, Haughwout won praise for championing mental health access, re-entry programs for convicted offenders and efforts to keep nonviolent offenders out of jail. The agency offers higher salaries, has less turnover and frequently better client outcomes than other Florida public defenders.
Two men, two paths
Eisinger, who has won Haughwout’s endorsement, would build on this solid foundation.
Frankel would take the office down a different path, prioritizing closer ties to prosecutors and police and playing a bigger role in policies.
There’s no good reason to do that, however, and good reason to avoid it. The Sun Sentinel recommends Daniel Eisinger for Public Defender in the 15th Judicial Circuit of Palm Beach County.
Born in Tel Aviv, Israel, Eisinger emigrated to the U.S. in 1980. After earning a law degree from UF in 2003, Eisinger, 45, began his legal career in the Public Defender’s Office. He worked in homicide, supervised the misdemeanor division and led the felony division before advancing to chief assistant six years ago.
In addition to administrative duties, Eisinger carries his own caseload. He launched a misdemeanor mental health court to connect low-level offenders with professional help. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he worked with the chief judge to lower bond for certain nonviolent offenders awaiting trial, easing jail crowding and the likelihood of a super-spreader event.
Not a politician
Eisinger’s endorsements include three former Florida Bar presidents. Much of his campaign money comes from the legal community, including 29 assistant public defenders and the Miami-Dade public defender. Unlike Frankel, he’s not a natural politician, but in this race, that’s an asset — not a liability.
By contrast, law enforcement support and Delray Beach businesses, many of them in development and real estate, dominate Frankel’s support.
Frankel, 52, went to work for the Palm Beach County public defender’s office in 1999, two years after graduating from University of Toledo College of Law.
In 2001, he launched his own firm. He was elected to the Delray Beach City Commission from 2009 to 2015 and again from 2018 until March. He served two years on Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg’s sober homes task force.
“I want to go back where I started my legal career,” said Frankel, who has been eying the job since 2015.
It’s not a good fit
Endorsed by Aronberg, the local Police Benevolent Association and Fraternal Order of Police, Frankel prioritizes increased collaboration among public defenders, prosecutors and law enforcement.
It’s not a good fit. Public defenders and law enforcement may be friendly adversaries, but they are adversaries just the same. Clients are best served when it stays that way.
A 2018 investigation by Gatehouse Media found that in Martin County, where the public defender urged her staff to get along with prosecutors, clients spent twice as long behind bars than those of the Palm Beach Public Defender’s office, where Haughwout pushed her staff to challenge prosecutors.
Frankel views the public defender as a policymaker and emphasizes his years at City Hall, where he compiled a pro-growth record.
Some Delray policies risked putting more poor people in jail. In 2021, Frankel backed criminalizing aggressive panhandling in the popular downtown district, balking at requests to postpone a vote until a task force could provide input.
The homeless in Delray
Two years later, complaints about homeless people resurfaced. Because just 16 of the estimated 104 homeless people in Delray created most of the problems, commissioners had an opportunity to partner with social service or medical providers and focus on getting the handful of chronic offenders off the street for longer than a brief jail stay. Frankel called for more law enforcement.
Frankel’s response that the 2021 panhandling law has not been challenged in court does not address the fact that it could put more people behind bars, or that if he wins, he could end up defending people he indirectly helped get arrested.
The four-year position pays $212,562.
Because the only two candidates are Democrats, this is a universal primary. All voters can cast ballots, regardless of party registration. The Democratic candidates’ names will appear on all ballots, including those sent to Republicans and independents. The winner will be determined on Aug. 20.
The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writer Martin Dyckman and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Editorials are the opinion of the Board and written by one of its members or a designee. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.
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