The head of a legal services firm that was the subject of a three-part series by the Mercury News has shot and killed himself in his San Jose home, the Merc reported today. Gary Proctor (right), 63, resigned in mid-February, the week the series “Broken Families, Broken Courts” appeared. Proctor’s firm has a contract with Santa Clara County to represent parents who faced losing their chldren in Santa Clara County Juvenile Dependency Court. The series reported that attorneys for Proctor’s firm often lacked such fundamental tools as experts and investigators, and regularly met the parents they represented on the day of their hearings. As a result of the series, court officials had begun an audit of Proctor’s firm and started to look for a new firm to represent indigent parents. Proctor was also a Newport Beach City Council member from 2000 to 2008. (Photo credit: Mercury News file)