PORTLAND, Maine — The Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday unanimously rejected a Scarborough man’s argument that new attorneys should have been assigned to his case after the fourth and fifth court-appointed counsels withdrew because of threats of bodily harm made by their client.
Joshua R. Nisbet, 38, argued that the judge forced him to represent himself during his May 2014 trial at the Cumberland County Courthouse.
The state’s high court disagreed in a 31-page decision written by Justice Jeffrey Hjelm.
“We conclude that in circumstances of egregious misconduct affecting the exercise of the right to counsel, such as those presented here, an accused can forfeit that right, and that the [lower] court did not err in determining that Nisbet’s conduct rose to the level that constituted a forfeiture,” Hjelm said. “We also conclude alternatively that the record establishes that through his misconduct, Nisbet waived his right to counsel by implication.”
It was the first time Maine’s high court had considered whether a defendant could forfeit the right to legal representation.
Nisbet was arrested in July 2011 and accused of robbing a gas station at knifepoint in South Portland, according to a previously published report. He remained at the Cumberland County Jail awaiting trial because he was unable to post bail.
As his trial was scheduled, then, rescheduled and lawyers were appointed to his case, then withdrew, it became apparent to Superior Court Justice Thomas Warren that “Nisbet’s interest was to have legal representation in name only and that he himself demanded to control all manner of the defense irrespective of its objective merit or ethical propriety,” Hjelm wrote.
Nisbet was convicted of robbery and sentenced to 14 years in prison with all but seven suspended and four years of probation.
He is incarcerated at the Bolduc Correctional Facility in Warren, according to information on the Department of Corrections website.