Nebraska MCLE #264235. 0.75 CLE Hour. (OnDemand credit)

During this seminar, our panel will review ways in which mental health evaluation can be used as a mitigating factor during sentencing, including use of prior mental health evaluation or NRRI determination as a mitigating factor during sentencing in a new criminal matter and a discussion on post-sentencing treatment and how an attorney may be involved in that process.

Becca Meinders, Lancaster County Public Defender's Office
Rebecca (Becca) Meinders currently serves as the Senior Social Worker at the Lancaster County Public Defender’s Office. During her high school years, she became fascinated with the field of abnormal psychology: the study, treatment, and advocacy for those who live with severe and persistent mental illness. After earning a Bachelor of Arts in psychology with mental health focus from Doane University, she spent a decade doing community-based work with those adults most affected by their mental illness. She found her passion and calling in the field of social work, obtaining her Master of Social Work (MSW) from the University of New England.

Chris Seifert, Lancaster County Attorney’s Office
Chris is currently the mental health attorney for the Lancaster County Attorney’s Office, where he’s worked for the last sixteen years. In his role as the office’s mental health attorney, Chris has responsibility for mental health civil commitments, dangerous sex offender commitments, some of the problem-solving programs offered by the County Attorney’s Office, and criminal prosecution. Chris’s previous assignments at the County Attorney’s Office include child support enforcement, problem-solving courts, and prosecuting general misdemeanors, domestic violence, and felony drug crimes. Chris has a journalism degree from Brigham Young University and is a 2006 graduate of the University of Nebraska College of Law. Outside of the courtroom, Chris enjoys reading, writing, and chasing starry Nebraska night skies. He and his wife, Sara, are the proud parents of seven children.

Todd Lancaster, Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy
Todd Lancaster was born in La Mesa, California. He graduated from the University of California, La Jolla in 1994 with a bachelor’s degree in political science. He then attended the University of Nebraska, Lincoln - College of Law and graduated in 1998. He started at the Madison County Nebraska Public Defender’s Office in September of 1998 and was with the office until September of 2004. At the Public Defender’s Office, he tried numerous cases and assisted in the capital murder trial of Jose Sandoval who was involved in the U.S. Bank Murders in Norfolk in 2002. After he left the Public Defender’s Office, Lancaster entered private practice with McGough Law, based in Omaha. During his time with McGough Law he continued to practice almost exclusively in the area of criminal law in Nebraska state courts and in federal courts in Nebraska and Iowa. He started with the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy in May of 2007 and was appointed Chief Counsel in August 2023. The Commission can be appointed to represent defendants in all Nebraska counties for serious crimes of violence such as murder and sexual assault. Lancaster has tried 23 homicide cases in which the State alleged murder in the first degree, murder in the second degree, or child abuse resulting in death. Two of his murder in the first-degree cases resulted in verdicts of not responsible by reason of insanity. He has been counsel in seven cases where the State has sought the death penalty. He has tried four of these cases to a jury which went through the guilt/innocence phase, the aggravating/mitigating circumstance phases, and the sentencing hearing in front of a panel of three judges. Three of the four cases resulted in his clients receiving life sentences. He has a Maine coon cat named Pedro, who is magnificent.

Kristi Egger, Lancaster County Public Defender
Kristi is a lifelong Nebraskan. While attending the UNL College of Law Kristi worked as a clerk in the Lancaster County Public Defender’s Office. After earning her law degree, Kristi’s first position was with the Hall County Public Defender’s Office, where she lived and worked for a year. Kristi then transitioned back to the Lancaster County Public Defender’s Office. While working in the Public Defender’s Office over the past three decades, Kristi handled every type of case, including juvenile, misdemeanors, felonies, appeals, child support and paternity, mental health civil commitments, and cases where a person’s mental illness affects their responsibility for criminal charges. With her experience in the area of mental health, she saw the need for an attorney from the Public Defender’s Office to serve on the Mental Health Diversion team. For the last several years Kristi has filled that role in this problem-solving program, which seeks to keep people suffering from severe mental illness outside the criminal court system.

Active Nebraska attorneys are required to complete 10 hours of continuing legal education (CLE) each year. Two of those 10 hours must be in the field of professional responsibility (ethics). Nebraska attorneys may claim only 5 hours of distance-learning CLE per year. Webinars viewed on this portal are considered distance-learning. After completing a viewing of a webinar on this portal, you must self-report your CLE credit on the Nebraska Supreme Court’s Attorney Services Division’s website at https://mcle.wcc.ne.gov.

For more information about Nebraska CLE requirements, see the MCLE Commission’s website at https://supremecourt.nebraska.gov/13449/mandatory-continuing-legal-education-mcle. For questions about CLE requirements, your own CLE transcript, or about reporting CLE credit online, contact the Nebraska Supreme Court’s Attorney Services Division at (531) 510-3641. For questions about this portal, contactthe Nebraska State Bar Association at (402) 475-7091.