Samantha Hogan

133 posts

Samantha Hogan focuses on government accountability projects for The Maine Monitor. She joined the newsroom as its first full-time reporter in 2019 with Report for America. Samantha was named the 2021 Maine’s Journalist of the Year by the Maine Press Association, and spent 2020 reporting on Maine’s court system through the ProPublica Local Reporting Network. Her reporting on county jails recording and listening to attorney-client phone calls won the Silver Gavel award from the American Bar Association and was also a semi-finalist for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting in 2023. Samantha previously worked for The Frederick News-Post and interned twice for The Washington Post.

A drawn illustration of the inside of a courtroom. On the left, an inmate dressed in an orange jumpsuit is looking at the empty seat next to them where their defense attorney should be sitting. On the right, sitting at a separate table, is a prosecutor.

Following arrest, defense lawyer banned from representing defendants for state

Suzanne Dwyer-Jones was charged with impaired driving on May 10. She continued to represent the state’s poorest defendants — until she was suspended Thursday.

BySamantha Hogan

May 23, 2021

Federal judge dismisses wiretapping claims at Maine jails

Lawyers and clients were unable to show that Securus Technologies intentionally recorded their calls at county jails, a federal judge ruled.

BySamantha Hogan

May 6, 2021

Nominees for Maine’s public defense commission broke rules to work on serious criminal cases

If confirmed by the Senate, lawyers Meegan Burbank and Matthew Morgan would help oversee the system they – and scores of other attorneys – violated.

BySamantha Hogan

April 25, 2021

Two-year budget leaves public defense reform underfunded

Lawmakers delay decision again on whether to add money to the next state budget for legal services for Maine's poor.

BySamantha Hogan

April 25, 2021

A man holds a sign during a protest outside the Maine State House. The reads: "Quarantine: When you isolate the sick and susceptible. Tyranny: When you quarantine health individuals and businesses."

Lawmakers look to rebalance power amid an extended state of emergency

Mainers have lived in a state of emergency for the past year — the longest period in at least 24 years. Republicans are now looking to change how governors can apply their emergency powers.

BySamantha Hogan Jordan Wolman Rose Lundy

March 28, 2021

A bronze statute of a scales of justice figurine.

Lawmakers push public defense reform in rebuke of governor’s budget

The Judiciary Committee opposed Gov. Janet Mills' plans to flat-fund the Maine Commission on Indigent Legal Services in the upcoming budget and instead is pushing for the state to greatly expand its oversight of attorneys.

BySamantha Hogan

March 17, 2021

Sarah Churchill, on left, raises her right hand as she faces Governor Janet Mills, who is raising her right hand and reading from a piece of paper, during a swearing in ceremony in the governor's office.

Governor prepares to fill vacancies on public defense oversight board

Gov. Janet Mills intends to recommend people to fill three vacancies and two expired terms on the Maine Commission on Indigent Legal Services as early as next month.

BySamantha Hogan

February 28, 2021