When Botham Jean’s mother, father, sister, pastor, the family’s legal team and a full jury filled one side of the courtroom as the wrongful death trial against former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger began this week, Guyger wasn't there — nor was there an attorney representing her.
Guyger waived her right to be at the trial, jury selection or any pretrial conferences last month. She's been a pro se litigant in the federal civil lawsuit, meaning she’s representing herself without an attorney. She can't afford one, according to court records.
And there’s no requirement for a federal court to appoint an attorney for a poor or “indigent” party in a civil case like Guyger — unlike in criminal cases, where defendants have a constitutional right to court-appointed attorney or public defender if they can’t afford one.
Scott Johnson, a professor at the Purdue Global Law School, said some states may allow for court-appointed attorneys in some situations — such as in a civil commitment to a mental rehabilitation facility or a parental revocation of rights case. But that may vary from state to state, depending what's written their constitutions.
“But for a case where somebody sues somebody else for damages, there's usually no right to an attorney for either party to be provided for free,” Johnson said.
Guyger, 36, is serving a 10-year sentence at a state prison in Gatesville for the murder of Jean, her neighbor, in 2018. She shot and killed the 26-year-old in his apartment.
She testified in her murder trial that she believed she was in her own apartment and he was an intruder. Guyger was fired weeks after the shooting.
Jean’s family filed the wrongful death suit the month after his death. They're likely pursuing millions in damages, among other things, for Jean's and their own pain and mental anguish.
Some legal experts and advocacy groups have fought for the right to civil counsel in civil cases at the state and local level for decades, especially in cases where parental rights, housing or medical benefits may be at stake.
Despite her incarceration, plaintiffs' attorney Daryl Washington said Guyger was indeed given the opportunity to put on her case. Jurors have so far heard testimony from Jean's parents, sister, pastor and even Guyger — video of her testimony in the criminal trial was played in court.
“She made the decision not to come and she has that right to,” Washington told KERA News Monday. “But we're going to still put on our case as if she was here.”
According to a motion, the city of Dallas Officer and Employee Liability Plan covered the costs of Guyger's defense in the civil lawsuit. That included hiring Mark Goldstucker, an outside attorney. The city was initially also named as a defendant in the lawsuit but was ultimately dropped.
But once a Dallas County jury found Guyger guilty of murder in October 2019, the city would no longer pay for her civil defense, according to court records. Guyger couldn’t afford to pay Goldstucker, so he withdrew as her attorney in early 2020.
Michael Mowla, the attorney who helped Guyger appeal her conviction to a state appeals court, made a one-time request to the federal court for Guyger in 2021 as a courtesy. He asked the judge to appoint an attorney for Guyger because she couldn’t afford a lawyer. He wrote in a motion that Guyger had attempted to find one and she was operating under “exceptional circumstances” because this was a complex lawsuit.
Then-magistrate judge Irma Carrillo Ramirez ruled that those are indeed the appropriate criteria that the court uses to consider an exception to the lack of a right for court-appointed civil counsel in federal cases — but the litigation was not too complex for Guyger to handle on her own.
Ramirez ultimately signed an order in 2022 stating Guyger did meet the criteria to be appointed a pro bono attorney — Joseph Cox with Dallas law firm Bracewell LLP. But Cox dropped out of the case only a week later because he “determined that there is a conflict of interest with his representation of Defendant Guyger in this matter as it relates to other matters that his firm handles for [the] City of Dallas.”
Both the defendant and the court share some responsibility for ensuring the parties in a case have access to lawyers, Johnson said, but it proves more difficult when one side is in jail.
“For civil cases, [being incarcerated] poses a number of challenges in terms of having access to information, being available to contact people, having people come and talk to you about your case,” he said.
Jean’s family alleged in a motion filed around the same time they had attempted to send Guyger discovery requests and notices of deposition in good faith, but Guyger had “refused to respond” or participate in the litigation in any way since August 2021.
The plaintiffs have ultimately fulfilled their responsibility under the law, Johnson said.
"It's not a prosecutor if it's a civil case, it's a plaintiff's attorney," Johnson said. "And so, their only obligation would be to present information on behalf of the plaintiffs so that the plaintiffs can prevail and obtain some kind of monetary judgment."
Jury deliberation in the case is expected to begin Wednesday.
Got a tip? Email Toluwani Osibamowo at tosibamowo@kera.org. You can follow Toluwani on X @tosibamowo.
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