How to resolve AdBlock issue? LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday appointed an attorney experienced in criminal defense to be the county’s next chief public defender.
The board emerged from a closed session on Tuesday to announce the hire of Thomas Feimer to fill the position, created in 2023.
He succeeds Raymond Buenaventura, who served in the position from October 2023 until this past November, when he left to accept the chief public defender’s job in Monterey County, as Lake County News has reported.
Since Buenaventura’s departure, Senior Deputy County Counsel Carlos Torrez has filled the chief public defender’s position on an interim basis.
In its announcement of Feimer’s hire, the county said he “brings a distinguished record of service, leadership, and commitment to justice, and extensive experience across Northern California’s legal landscape.”
The county also said Feimer has “a strong background in public service and legal advocacy, with experience supporting access to quality legal representation for communities throughout the region. His career reflects a consistent commitment to fairness, integrity, and public service.”
“I look forward to working collaboratively with the community, the courts, and county leadership to ensure every resident receives quality legal representation,” Feimer said in the statement issued by the county.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Irvine, and earned a Juris Doctor from Golden Gate University School of Law, where he focused on public interest and criminal defense. In December 2009, he was admitted to the State Bar of California.
From 2016 to 2024, he worked as a criminal defense attorney in Lake County. His notable cases included defending Mavrick Fisher, a young deaf man accused of killing another deaf man, Grant David Whitaker, in a 2019 incident which occurred in Humboldt County but was tried in Lake County after Whitaker’s body was found here.
During his first eight years in Lake County, Feimer worked for the county’s indigent defense contractors, first Lake Legal Defense Services and, later, for its successor, Lake Indigent Defense, for which Feimer was one of its partners and administrators.
When the Board of Supervisors was looking to hire its first chief public defender, Feimer was among the five initial candidates.
Feimer left the contract in the spring of 2024 to take a job with the Mendocino County Public Defender’s Office.
“I am extremely honored and excited to return to Lake County,” Feimer told Lake County News in a Tuesday email. “I have aspired to this position ever since the County established the Public Defender's office. I look forward to reconnecting with colleagues and friends, meeting new members of the office, and leading a team the community can be proud of — one that delivers strong, ethical defense and earns public trust through outstanding work.”
Feimer said he’s grateful to everyone who encouraged him to apply and supported his application. “It really means a lot.”
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