ILNews

Public defender facing suspension

Michael W. Hoskins
January 1, 2008
Keywords
Back to TopCommentsE-mailPrint
A Marion County public defender is being suspended from his job after his arrest during an undercover child sex sting this weekend.

The chair of the public defender office's board of directors confirmed that Ryan Snyder, 29, is being suspended today and the Marion County Public Defender's Agency is determining whether that will be paid leave or not.

"We don't want to be premature, and we have to let the judicial system work," said chair Jimmie McMillian, an associate with Indianapolis firm Barnes & Thornburg. "We've instituted protocols within our office that whenever we suspend a person, they not have access to cases, computers, or the office."

McMillian said he spoke this morning with Chief Public Defender David E. Cook, who could not be immediately reached by Indiana Lawyer today.

An undercover Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department detective arrested Snyder about noon Feb. 17 after that detective posed online as a 15-year-old girl who was willing to meet the public defender at a pre-arranged location on the city's south side for sex, a police report detailed. The report notes that he'd used the Internet to set up a meeting, and he had previously e-mailed an explicit photo to a detective - all while believing the receiver was an underage girl.

Snyder was arrested on charges of child solicitation and dissemination of information harmful to a minor.

The Indiana Roll of Attorneys shows Snyder was admitted to practice in September 2005, and the Marion County Public Defender's Agency lists him as a defender assigned to Marion Superior Judge Becky Pierson-Treacy in Criminal Court 19.

Despite the embarrassing situation involving Snyder, those on the agency's board don't want this to reflect poorly on the office or other public defenders.

"This is obviously no reflection on the fine public defenders we have who do great work," McMillian said.
ADVERTISEMENT

Post a comment to this story

COMMENTS POLICY
We reserve the right to remove any post that we feel is obscene, profane, vulgar, racist, sexually explicit, abusive, or hateful.
 
You are legally responsible for what you post and your anonymity is not guaranteed.
 
Posts that insult, defame, threaten, harass or abuse other readers or people mentioned in Indiana Lawyer editorial content are also subject to removal. Please respect the privacy of individuals and refrain from posting personal information.
 
No solicitations, spamming or advertisements are allowed. Readers may post links to other informational websites that are relevant to the topic at hand, but please do not link to objectionable material.
 
We may remove messages that are unrelated to the topic, encourage illegal activity, use all capital letters or are unreadable.
 

Messages that are flagged by readers as objectionable will be reviewed and may or may not be removed. Please do not flag a post simply because you disagree with it.

Sponsored by

facebook - twitter on Facebook & Twitter

Indiana State Bar Association

Indianapolis Bar Association

Evansville Bar Association

Allen County Bar Association

Indiana Lawyer on Facebook

facebook
ADVERTISEMENT
Subscribe to Indiana Lawyer
  1. vagueness cannot challenged, so let's write all laws vaguely and throw the constitution out the window.Even if the court is operating under a particular law, if they don't it they will change it to their liking. What a joke!!!

  2. Two convictions becomes one conviction with exactly the same sentence, only it is not clear wheter or not that sentence will be 18 months, 120 months or 138 months. Actually if the guns were in a home, whether or not they were his, he is protected under the 2nd amendment. Jurors need to learn the law and the constitution before judging others. The cour5ts need to do this as well.

  3. With all due respect, Rick, I think you probably would be making a mistake by going to law school. The job market for attorneys is so saturated, you may well find yourself unemployed and with a lot of debt. You mention law would be a good supplement to your skills. True. But employers unfortunately don't value that. You will find that a law degree may well pigeonhole you into an attorney slot and limit career options. If you have a good job now I would hold onto that. As an attorney, you may well end up making less with the aforementioned debt.

  4. Jack, I was only responding to bill's comment of tying everybody in government together. I agree with you though, it takes one bad apple to ruin the bunch.. As in any profession. What's truly unfair is when somebody violates someone's trust and takes complete advantage of someone

  5. John’s comment is unfair. The majority of attorneys can be trusted. Unfortunately, all it takes is one greedy, unscrupulous, immoral attorney to jade the public.

ADVERTISEMENT