My question involves civil rights in the State of: Washington
In 1974 I was 17 years old and "arrested" for breaking into a car dealership and stealing a vehicle (along with 9 other people) in the state of Washington. In those days it was necessary to have a [I]remand[I] hearing to be charged as an adult, and back then it had to be a fairly serious charge.
The police took me into custody ten days before my 18th birthday, and rather than hold a remand hearing I was held in an adult county jail for ten days without any charges until my birthday when I was charged with burglary and theft of a vehicle.
No-one else was charged as they all agreed to turn state's witnesses and like an idiot I refused to plead guilty as I was a follower rather than a leader in this "caper" that developed at a keg party. Of course, the others, many of whom were over 18, all portrayed me as the "ringleader" but I stupidly followed the "jailhouse lawyers" advice and took the case to trial.
I wasn't sure if that was legal or not, but asked my public pretender to file an appeal anyway. A few years later I got a letter from the lawyer while still in prison that only told me my appeal had been denied. I was sentenced to fifteen and ten years respectively which were ordered to run consecutively, because I refused to cooperate with federal agents who were trying to get information on a friend for selling pot across state lines. The agents told me if I did not cooperate they would see to it that I went to prison for a long, long time, but the old-timers told me they couldn't do that and were only trying to scare me.
Last year I found out through a friend who had "Googled" my full name that my name had come up regarding a legal case, so I looked it up. It turned out the public defender did NOT appeal on the issue of holding me for ten days with no charges as a juvenile in an adult jail at all, rather he appealed on a totally unrelated issue that stood no chance of success.
That conviction ultimately ruined my life. And all this time I thought I had lost my appeal for the above-referenced issues when they were never even addressed.
Is there any way to bring this back into a Federal Court?

