Jacob N. Sommer

Mr. Sommer was court appointed as public defender in 2012 case. He immediately insisted that I agree to a plea arrangement which would have meant, at that point, pleading guilty to something I had not done. Over the next 6-7 weeks he failed to contact any of the people on my witness list as supplie...d to him...names and phone numbers. The DA's office continued to make plea arrangement offers with each offer dropping more of the charges. Mr. Sommer was provided with both photo and documentary information to proceed with a reasonable defense and failed to followup on any of it. I was forced into a plea arrangement of "no contest" to 5 counts will all other (29 counts) dropped when it became clear that there was to be no possibility of a fair trial. I was waiting to sign into do jail time when he came downstairs from the district court and saw me sitting in the jail lobby...he stopped and asked how I was doing. In the ensuing conversation he made the comment "You know you were set up and railroaded, right?" When I suggested that it was his job as a defense attorney to prevent that or show it had happened, his response was that he had done the best he could. When I later had life threatening health issues and a letter from doctors recommending suspension of the balance (80 hours) of community service he and the Justice of the Peace and the DA responded (according to him) that they could not do this BUT I could leave the state without finishing the community service time and the court would issue an "in state only" fugitive warrant....meaning I could not come back to NV (assuming I left) without risking being arrested for not completing the community service time. I declined this "offer" and completed the time against my doctors' recommendations. This attorney immediately withdrew from the case.