Kohberger attorney represented parent of victim in Moscow homicides before taking his case

Up until taking his case, Bryan Kohberger’s court-appointed public defender was actively representing a parent of one of the four Moscow stabbing victims her client is accused of killing, court records show.

Anne Taylor, chief of the Kootenai County Public Defender’s Office, filed an attorney withdrawal notice in Kootenai County Court for the parent on Jan. 5 — the same day Kohberger made his first court appearance in Idaho in Latah County. The parent previously was sentenced on unrelated misdemeanor charges.

In that case, as well as another where the parent faces two felony charges, the public defender’s office withdrew in favor of a local criminal defense attorney unrelated to Taylor or the county’s public defender’s office. The new attorney is listed as the “conflict public defender” in court documents.

The Idaho Statesman is not naming the parent with connections to Taylor. The only reason these criminal charges are being reported is to establish the connection between Taylor and family of the homicide victims.

Legal experts said the new detail in the high-profile case raised conflict-of-interest questions, when presented with the information by the Idaho Statesman.

“Anytime a former client is involved in a current representation, a lawyer should evaluate any potential conflicts,” Brad Andrews, former counsel for the Idaho State Bar, told the Statesman by phone. “Conflicts are very factually based, and so the lawyer decides whether the lawyer has a conflict.”

The four stabbing victims were U of I seniors Madison Mogen, 21, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21; junior Xana Kernodle, 20; and freshman Ethan Chapin, 20. The off-campus rental house where they died is located about 9 miles east of Washington State University in Pullman, where Kohberger was a Ph.D. student.

Kohberger, 28, was arrested in eastern Pennsylvania at his parent’s house on Dec. 30, extradited to Idaho and charged with four counts of first-degree murder, as well as a count of felony burglary.

Taylor is one of just 13 public defenders in Idaho approved by the state’s public defense commission to lead a capital punishment case. She’s also the only one in all of North Idaho. Prosecutors have yet to indicate whether they will seek the death penalty in Kohberger’s case.

Since 2000, the county public defender’s office has represented the homicide victim’s parent off and on in several cases, court records showed. Since Taylor took over, her office has defended the parent in four cases, including a misdemeanor from August 2017, for which Taylor took over as the attorney of record in September 2022.

Taylor’s office also has represented another parent of a Moscow homicides victim in four criminal cases since she became chief public defender. In two cases, online court records name Taylor as an “inactive” attorney.

Taylor, 57, has led Kootenai County’s public defender office since June 2017. She previously worked in the same office from 2004 to 2012, then shifted to private practice before returning to take the helm, according to the Coeur d’Alene Press.

Taylor is an Idaho native and earned her law degree from the University of Idaho in 1998, the Kootenai County-based newspaper reported.

Legal expert: Potential conflict ‘not easy to answer’

The Idaho State Bar provides direction to attorneys in its Rules of Professional Conduct about conflicts of interest.

“Loyalty and independent judgment are essential elements in the lawyer’s relationship to a client,” its rule on conflicts and current clients reads. “Concurrent conflicts of interest can arise from the lawyer’s responsibilities to another client, a former client or a third person or from the lawyer’s own interests.”

Bob Boruchowitz is a longtime attorney and director of the Defender Initiative at Seattle University’s law school, which aims to improve public defense representation. In an interview with the Statesman, he declined to state whether Taylor’s situation constituted a conflict of interest, instead saying that lawyers should be guided by their state codes, and even consult others in the practice when possible conflicts arise.