Monica Conyers needs court appointed attorney

Here’s a very strange development in the Monica Conyers saga: She says she’s broke and needs the taxpayers to pay for a court appointed lawyer. And she got one, according to the Detroit Free Press, which reports that Judge Avern Cohn appointed an attorney to handle the appeal asking for her guilty plea on corruption and bribery charges to be withdrawn.

Bill Ballenger probably got it right:

Bill Ballenger, publisher of Inside Michigan Politics, said the situation is definitely curious.

“If John Conyers jumped in himself and said, ‘Oh my God, we have to appeal this and I’ll pay for an attorney,’ that probably would cause him a lot more problems personally and politically than what’s going on now,” Ballenger said. “The idea that he is unwilling to help her, or she doesn’t have any access to his money, is probably good for John Conyers.

“But it also raises questions about what kind of marriage they have.”

As a general rule, courts do not consider a spouse’s income when handling claims of being indigent. If they have separate bank accounts, her husband’s money would not be considered in the calculation unless he volunteered that money for her defense — which he’s not about to do.