It sounds like what you were watching was a first appearance, though I could be wrong. Depending on the circumstances, the public defender may not have even bee

It sounds like what you were watching was a first appearance, though I could be wrong. Depending on the circumstances, the public defender may not have even been appointed to the case until the hearing. The public defender may not even have had an opportunity to talk to the defendant prior to that, and is going mostly on whatever the prosecutor filed. But that doesn't really matter that much for first appearances. The only real point of first appearances is to advise the defendant of their rights, the charges, take an initial plea (this is almost always a not guilty plea - negotiations for plea agreements generally don't start until after the first appearance), and officially assign a public defender to the case (assuming they are not hiring their own attorney). Depending on the jurisdiction and context a bond may also be set, or that may be in a separate hearing. In some jurisdictions a public defender isn't even present for first appearances, because there's so little for them to actually do. The stereotype is that the public defenders are all incompetent. But if you actually talk to judges or criminal attorneys you will get a different picture. Judges in particular tend to have a lot of respect for the public defender's office. Honestly, in all the hearings I've seen involving an incompetent defense attorney, they are more likely to be private counsel than from the public defender's office.