02/21/2023 Supreme Court of the State of Montana, Cause No. DA 22-0146 Case Number: DA 22-0146
I am writing this letter to explain the current situation involving an appeal in Cause Number DA 22-0146. The appeal that was submitted to this court for review was not fully briefed due to inadequate representation by counsel. My current retained counsel of record on this case is Michael Klinkhammer from Klinkhammer Law Offices in Kalispell, Montana. I did not have money to retain an attorney but my mother Debra Gafford obtained a loan from the equity of her home to secure money to retain counsel for me. Once my Mother obtained the money she hired Mr. Klinkhammer to represent me and provided Mr. Klinkhammer with a $5,000 retainer fee. My Mother never received a receipt for the $5,000 and she only was given a business card with $5,000 written on it.
During the time Mr. Klinkhammer has been representing rne, the entire situation has been very difficult. Mr. Klinkhammer is almost impossible to get ahold of and the few times when I am able to make contact with him I get very inconsistent answers from him and it seems like l always get a runaround. l have been told by him that after he filed a Notice of Appearance in my case and represented me in sentencing that it was a conflict of interest to represent me in my appeal. After I asked how it was a conflict I could not seem to get a straight answer out of him. Eventually, he decided that he could represent me in my appeal and he requested, and was provided another $2000 for what he stated was for court transcripts. Shortly after that, his phone was shut off for several months so it would go directly to his voicemail, which was almost always full so no messages could be left. After several months of Mr. Klinkhammer's phone having all calls being sent directly to voicemail, Mr. Klinkhammer finally called my mother and stated that he didn't think he could do my appeal because he did not see any appealable issues and that he would return about half of the money (because he did represent me during my sentencing in this case) to my mother, but said that he did not have any money at the moment. He also stated that he would give all my paperwork (court records) back to me.
As soon as my mother relayed this information to me and due to the constant shitftyness and runarounds, I called Mr. Klinkhammer and my call was once again directly forwarded to his voicemail and I left a message specifically stating that I needed my paperwork back and that I did not want him to file my appeal and to refund my mother the money had given him. After I left the initial message and did not hear from him, I called again and left another very clear message that I did not want him to do my appeal and requested rny paperwork back and the money being returned to my mother.
Several months later Mr. Klinkhammer showed up one day to visit me in the Lake County Detention Center and handed me a stack of papers and a spiraled copy of his opening
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brief for my appeal. After specifically telling him that I did not want him to represent me numerous times in very clear voice messages on his phone, he filed the opening brief anyways. After Mr. Klinkhammer left, I was examining the Opening Brief he filed and saw that many of the issues that 1 specifically wanted raised that were preserved in District Court for appeal purposes (that I told Mr. Klinkhammer l wanted raised in previous discussions prior to hirn being shifty about whether he could or could not file the appeal and myself stating that l did not want him to do my appeal) were not raised in his opening brief. l also felt that the Opening Brief wasn't done adequately.
The next day I called him and was able to leave a message, and the call was returned by Mr. Klinkhammer's paralegal named Tommi. I stated that Mr. Klinkhammer did not raise the issues I wanted in the appeal and I also stated that I didn't want the opening brief he filed in the court and told her that I wanted Mr. Klinkhammer to withdraw the opening brief and withdraw from my case and send my appeal to the Office of Appelate Defenders and Tommi told me that Mike (Mr. Klinkhammer) is one of the best brief writers and that he would finish my appeal and he was going to do it. Mr. Klinkhammer did not withdraw the brief or withdraw from my case as requested.
After Mr. Klinkhammer's opening brief was responded to by the state, Mr. Klinkhammer never provided me with a copy of the states response and I had to ask my other attorney, Jeff N. Wilson, appealing another case in DA 21-0649 to provide me with the State's response to Mr. Klinkhammer's Opening Brief. Mr. Wilson did in fact provide me with a copy of the State's Response and also provided me a letter with a screenshot of the Montana Supreme Court's Register of Actions to make me aware of Mr. Kiinkhammer's actions or rather inactions by failing to file an absolutely neccesary Reply Brief in my appeal. (See Exhibit A).
Mr. Klinkhammer did not even attempt to teli me that he did not file a Reply Brief and it seems like he was trying to hide this fact. l have tried to Contact Mr. Klinkhammer regarding him failing to file a Reply Brief in my case and he will not answer my calls. My mother has also attempted to contact Mr. Klinkhammer about this and he has not returned her calls, Without Mr. Wilson providing me the letter with the screenshot of the Montana Supreme Court's Register of Actions, l would never have known that Mr. Klinkhammer did not file a Reply Brief in my appeal and the Montana Supreme Court would have made a ruling based upon an incomplete appeal.
Mr. Klinkhammcr filed an opening brief in my case and failed to file a reply brief after I specifically told him not to even do my appeal and requested that he remove himself from my case. There is no logical reason why a Reply Brief should not have been filed and I have suffered judicial prejudice due to this failure. The representation that Mr. Klinkhammer has provided me has been completely inadequate considering the obviously apparent circumstances and l have
been dealing with constant runarounds and excuses in the rare times I am able to contact him.
To be very clear in the relief I am requesting, I am respectfully asking the Montana Supreme Court to please vacate the current review of the incomplete appeal, withdraw Mr. Klinkhammer's Opening Brief and the State's Response, remove Mr. Klinkhammer from my case and forward the case to the Office of Appellate Defenders to redo my appeal properly and to completion to prevent a serious miscarriage of justice.
71-1-iank You. Respectfully, Tyler Fredrick Erickson
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APPELLATE DEFENDER DIVISION MONTANA STATF P.O. Box 200147 i PUBLIC DEFENDER Helena, MT 59620 T: (406) 444-9505 t E X 1-4 1 g Toll Free: (888) 251-6101
February 2, 2023 LEGAL MAIL — CONFIDENTIAL ATTORNEY-CLIENT COMMUNICATION Tyler Erickson DOC ID# 3013413 Lake County Detention Center Polson, MT 59860
Re: State v. Erickson, Montana Supreme Court Case DA 21-0649 (DC-15-227) Dear Mr. Erickson:
Enclosed with this letter, I am providing a copy of your Appellee Response in DA 22- 0146 (the Klinkhammer appeal of your drug conviction involving the informant). Hopefully you can read the small print. As I mentioned on the phone, the Supreme Court's online docket for this case showed Klinkhammer got an extension to file a Reply Brief, but did not file one by the extended deadline, and the Supreme Court `sent the case to Court,' which I take to mean it considers the case fully briefed. Below is a screenshot of the docket. You should contact Klinkhammer for more information.
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