James Grandberry appears before Brown County court, October 22, 2025. PC: Fox 11 Online
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — If the state can’t find defense attorneys for criminal defendants for months on end, the charges should be dismissed due to the violation of their constitutional rights, a national defense lawyers group argues.
The issue stems from the case of James Grandberry, a suspect in a major Chicago-to-Green Bay drug ring investigation. He sat in jail for more than 14 months without an attorney or a preliminary hearing, which is usually held within 10 days.
Grandberry, 36, faces 14 charges, including three of manufacture or delivery of fentanyl, amphetamine and cocaine. He was arrested July 11, 2024, and charged about two weeks later. Prosecutors have said this case was the state’s first wiretap investigation for fentanyl and at least 47 people are facing charges. Grandberry now has an attorney and has pleaded not guilty. No trial date has been set. He returns to court June 22 for a status conference.
Before an attorney was appointed, however, Grandberry’s preliminary hearing was postponed 10 times.
Grandberry’s motion to have his case dismissed was denied by a judge. Grandberry then filed what’s known as an “interlocutory appeal” asking a higher court for the case to dismissed, arguing his Sixth Amendment rights were violated by the delay. Usually, the appeals court take up issues of law after a case has been completed, but this mechanism allows for an appeal while the case is still pending. In August, the Court of Appeals said it would hear the case. This appeal case continues, even though an attorney was eventually found for Grandberry and his case is now underway.
Attorneys for both Grandberry and prosecutors have filed arguments with the court. Other groups have asked to file what are known as “friend of the court” briefs, offering their opinions on the case. The first one was filed Thursday.
The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers argues the remedy should be dismissing the charges outright, without giving the state the ability to refile the charges. Refiling of charges was allowed in another case, where Nhia Lee was jailed 113 days with a preliminary hearing.
“Only dismissal with prejudice accomplishes something useful. It tells all that egregious violations of due process beget serious consequences,” wrote attorney George Burnett.
And while it isn’t the prosecutors’ fault Grandberry didn’t get an attorney, it is the state of Wisconsin’s issue, the NACDL brief argues.
The crisis the Supreme Court described therefore emanates from the State’s policy decision, so the consequences of that decision should fall on the State, not those it accuses. Funding lawyers to represent those accused of crimes is neither politically urgent nor electorally popular for now, prisoners like James Grandberry bear, through no fault of their own, the full ramifications of the State’s unwillingness to meet its constitutional obligations. That must change.”
The Wisconsin Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the State Public Defender’s Office also plan to file briefs, court records show. It will likely be several months before the Court of Appeals rules in the case.
Grandberry’s case isn’t the only one to challenge the delays in appointing attorneys. In 2022, eight current and former inmates filed suit in Brown County, seeking an order demanding quicker appointment of counsel. The state public defender’s office has also spent more than a year making over 5,000 contacts, trying to find an attorney for Jordan Leavy-Carter, who is charged in connection with the shooting death of a five-year-old.
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