DECATUR - Gregory A. Mattingley, a longtime local defense attorney, has been chosen to replace outgoing Public Defender Jon Baxter when he retires at the end of the month.

The Macon County Circuit Court announced Thursday that Mattingley, 58, has been chosen to become the new public defender Feb. 1. The county will pay him $144,000 annually for the position.

Presiding Judge John K. Greanias said Macon County judges interviewed seven applicants from a "very well-qualified applicant pool" before unanimously choosing Mattingley for the appointment based on the longstanding relationships and demonstrated management skills he would bring to the position.

"It is a real benefit to have someone who has worked in the Macon County environment and is familiar with the court procedures and the judges and state's attorney and state's attorney staff," Greanias said.

Mattingley began practicing law in Macon County as an assistant state's attorney from 1975 to 1977. He has been an attorney with the Decatur law firm of Brown, Haskins, Basola & Mattingley since 1977 and has worked as a part-time public defender since 1989.

One immediate issue Mattingley will be involved in resolving is how the county might move to a system of a full-time public defender's office, which he said at first gave him pause when he submitted his name for the job.

"I'm going to have to sort out this mess with a full-time office," Mattingley said. "I've got a year to get this to where they (the judges) want it to be."

Baxter has operated the office under a part-time system, where he worked out of his own private law office and contracted with 12 local defense attorneys, who also worked part-time operating out of their own offices to handle felony, juvenile, traffic and misdemeanor cases.

In addition to handling administrator duties, Baxter personally handled a large portion of the caseload.

But Mattingley said he will be a full-time administrator and will be leaving his private firm when he becomes the public defender. He made that decision after handling Baxter's chores for two months last year while Baxter was recovering from surgery and had to be off his feet.

"I found I had about 32 hours of every week tied up handling cases out of the 40-hour work week," Mattingley said. "You can't do that and give the judges what they want, a full-time administrator to move cases along."

Mary Tallon can be reached at mtallon @herald-review.com or 421-7984.