URBANA — Christopher Tichenor sat at a table shuffling papers inside a courtroom in Champaign County.

Over the next 90 minutes, the assistant public defender would handle case after case for defendants being arraigned on an array of charges. A man accused of domestic battery. Another with aggravated driving under the influence. Another with breaking into a car. As the cases were being called, Tichenor greeted the brother of a woman charged with retail theft. He shook hands with a man whose wrists were shackled, wanted on an out-of-state drug warrant.

Inside the cavernous and mostly empty courtroom, much of the action was on a large-screen television as Tichenor’s clients appeared through a video feed from the Champaign County Jail. Associate Judge Brett Olmstead addressed the defendants

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