Matthew Shirk

Lawsuit against Public Defender Matt Shirk dismissed

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Matthew Aaron Shirk (born July 9, 1973) is an American lawyer and serves as Public Defender for Florida Fourth Session Court. He was elected to the position, which included Clay, Duval, and Nassau County, in 2008 and lost reelection in 2016. He is currently under investigation by the Florida Bar for temporary action in the office.

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Shirik graduated from the University of Western Illinois with a science degree in 1997, and then moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where he obtained a law degree from Florida Coastal School of Law in 1999. As a law student he was interned at the State Attorney's office below oversight prosecutor Angela Corey, who was elected as State Attorney in 2008. Shirk married Sarah Maria Purdy on March 13, 1999 and was admitted to the Florida Bar on April 12, 2000, and then worked for five years as Assistant Public Defender (APD) at the Court of Appeal Court Fourth. After divorcing his first wife, Shirk married Michelle Burney in 2004, and the couple had one son, Pierce. He left the office of the Public Defender and attributed to law firm Jacksonville Tassone & amp; Eler for nearly two years before opening private practice with William Durden III in November 2006.

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Public Defender

In 2008 Syirk, a Republican, ran for public defender of the Fourth Court of Florida Trial Court. Some commentators have criticized the lack of experience of Shirk's murder and his pledge not to take a confrontational stance with law enforcement if he is elected, in contrast to the normally hostile relationship between defense lawyers and law enforcement. However, Syirk emphasized that his role was to manage the office, not necessarily to be the main lawyer. Syirk won 51% to 49% with a margin of 14,246 votes. The victory is considered annoyed, in part because it is the first time a Republican has run for the post since the state of Florida established his position in 1963.

After winning, Shirk stated he will streamline the office to improve services and reduce costs. The Florida Times-Union was impressed with Shirk's performance in his first year. In an editorial on March 18, 2010, the newspaper praised cost-cutting measures, such as introducing video conferencing to improve staff efficiency and switch from paper to electronic documents, as well as community work. According to Jacksonville Record , the implementation of videoconference Shirks saves about $ 120,000.

Syirk fired ten lawyers in the office, including defense attorneys in the Brenton Butler case. He was employed as his deputy, Refik Eler. Eler defends eight men sentenced to death, more than any other lawyer in Florida. A judge overturned the death sentence of Raymond Morrison stating that Eler's defense was ineffective and that Eler did not investigate the case properly.

Syirk ran for re-election in 2012 and defeated one opponent in the main Republican Party; he was not opposed in the general election.

In 2013 Tiffany Ice and Kaylee Chester were dismissed from the Public Defender's office after a visit from Shirk's wife. This led to the resignation of another employee by the name of Kelly. It was later revealed that Syirk exchanged dozens of text messages with a dismissed female employee. After a dispute in the office of the Public Defender, the incident was investigated by a jury requesting him to immediately resign for his activities in the scandal and other reasons. Some important conclusions from the grand jury report are that: 1) Shirk sacked three women from his office solely to help improve his marriage, 2) Shirk violated local law by offering alcohol in his office, and that 3) Shirk violated the client's privilege lawyer when he shared the details of the conversation he did with Cristian Fernandez with a documentary crew. Among other factors, is Shirkic diverted funds to pay for a bath that is not approved in his office. The Grand Jury essentially concluded that Shirk had embarrassed his office.

Despite a jury request that Syirk resign, and if he does not do so, the governor must move him, Governor Rick Scott - through a spokesman - handed it over to voters.