Tim Smith is chief of Portage public defenders

Former BJ managing editor Tim Smith was appointed head of Portage County’s Public Defender Office.

That’s for those who can’t afford an attorney and have one appointed by the court. There are seven lawyers in the public defender’s office.

Tim, 73, also is a retired Kent State professor.

Tim got the post on an interim basis when Dennis Lager, who had held the post for 20 years, was put on administrative leave.

Tim resigned as Public Defender Commission chairman to qualify for the interim role. As chairman, Tim said Lager’s ouster was because “the morale in the office needed some addressing.”

The Public Defender Commission includes attorneys Mark Hanna, Bill Lentz and Bill Simon and former municipal court bailiff Jerry Beach.

Smith, a 1977 graduate of the University of Akron law school, started teaching at Kent State in 1986, retiring in 2014. Smith lives in Rootstown with his wife, Jane, a retired Akron schoolteacher. They have three grown children and five grandchildren.