It is unknown whether Trinchet ever refunded the county's money. She refused to answer written questions from The Herald about the Durant case.

Badini, filling in for Huttoe, failed to attend the plea hearing for one of Huttoe's defendants, court records show. Huttoe billed three hours for the hearing.

FARM TEAMS
Business passed down to other lawyers

Huttoe, the leader in court appointment fees with more than $1.4 million since 1983, couldn't have done it without farming out his cases to other lawyers.

Since Huttoe refused to be interviewed, it is unknown how much he finally made.

In any case, Huttoe's largess with court appointments was not against the rules at the time.

MULTIPLE BILLING
Cases involving same defendant a boon

Maultasch billed a total of 17 hours in five separate bills for attending the same six-minute hearing involving a car thief.

A mistake, he said, due to bad record-keeping.

Maultasch also billed a total of 28 hours in five separate bills for retrieving and copying five cases files from the Public Defender's office.

Another mistake.

"I suppose now I can look back and say, 'I should have been doing everything right, ' " Maultasch said.

Mastos said multiple billing definitely is not right.

He cited his own example: a defendant he represented who had 10 separate residential burglary cases. Mastos billed $1,860 for all 10 cases -- or $186 for each case, far below the $2,500 per case limit.

"If I was the kind of person that was going to pad bills and rip the county off, that was the case to do it, " he said. "That case had a billing capability, or capacity, of $25,000."

When he submitted his 10 bills to Dade Circuit Judge David Tobin for approval, Mastos recalled that "Dave said, 'Ted, you didn't bill hardly anything on this.'

"I said, 'Look. You have one or two cops. You have all homeowners. The guy had confessed. There is absolutely no point in milking the county.' "