Kern County, CA
Home MenuPublic Defender
Peter Kang
Public Defender
Teryl Wakeman
Assistant Public Defender
Jano Mattaeo
Chief Deputy Public Defender
The Public Defender's Office provides legal counsel and representation to indigent criminal defendants who are unable to pay for legal assistance.
The Public Defender's Office does not handle civil or family law matters - for information on these matters, visit the Superior Court of California, County of Kern Web site. If you are unsure of whether a given case is a civil or criminal matter, you can use Kern County's Case Information and Calendars site to look up cases.
Supervising Attorneys
Jacob Evans
Supervising Attorney
Janice Kim
Supervising Attorney
Benjamin Nkwonta
Supervising Attorney
Thomas Pope
Supervising Attorney
Crystal Ratliff
Supervising Attorney
T. Alan Rogers
Supervising Attorney
Mission Statement
The Kern County Public Defender's driving priorities are providing high quality and professional representation to all clients who we have the privilege and constitutional mandate to represent, and respecting Kern County and state taxpayers, who fund our department's work.