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Hundreds arrested in Operation Rio Grande are entitled to a public defender — but who will pay for that?

Related Topics: Public defender, Rio Grande

It’s been two weeks since Operation Rio Grande began as an effort to reduce lawlessness around Salt Lake City’s downtown homeless shelter.

There have been about 600 arrests. But as prosecutors file criminal charges against those people, will there be attorneys available to defend them?

Richard Mauro, the executive director of Salt Lake Legal Defenders Association (LDA), said Friday that since the arrests began, his office has slowly started to see an uptick in cases.

There are those who were arrested on warrants and already had public defenders, but they’ll need further representation if new charges are filed, he said.