Some May Work Saturdays to Meet 36-Hour Deadline : Judges Agree to Speed Up Handling of Arrest Cases

Orange County judges have agreed to go along with a plan that may have some of them working on Saturdays to ensure that most people arrested for crimes are brought before a judge within 36 hours--as required by a federal court order.

“It’s not going to be easy,” said Robert Kuhel, administrator for Central Municipal Court. “We have a 50% increase in our caseload over last year, and we need every judge we have Monday through Friday. But our judges have agreed to do anything they can to comply.”

U.S. District Judge Richard Gadbois agreed Tuesday to a settlement of a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union that requires a 36-hour cutoff on the period between an arrest and the defendant’s first court appearance. The 36-hour limit would take effect this fall.

Gadbois’ order, based on the settlement, affects only those arrested in non-warrant cases in which a judge needs to hear police evidence that there was probable cause for a person’s arrest before arraigning the defendant. The order does not apply if an arrest warrant was issued.

Now, in non-warrant cases, people arrested on Friday sit in the Orange County Jail more than 48 hours before a hearing because no judge is available until Monday morning.

A survey ordered by Judge Gadbois showed that 42% of the inmates at the Orange County Jail are there four days or more before they are brought into court for arraignment.

ACLU attorney Richard P. Herman said the survey shows also that 48% of the people sent to Orange County Jail never end up being charged with anything. Those are primarily misdemeanor cases involving charges such as public drunkenness.

“There are just an incredible number of cases where defendants end up staying in jail longer than the sentence would have been,” Herman said.

Orange County Municipal Court judges have long complained that the problem is not that the judges aren’t processing defendants fast enough. The problem, they say, is that they can’t take a plea from someone without seeing the police paper work on the case. And too often the paper work is not ready, so the inmate is sent back to the jail and returned to court the next day.

“I think we’ve found some general deficiencies in the system, which is why we agreed to the 36 hours,” said Timothy J. Stafford, a private attorney representing the county in the ACLU case.

Stafford said details of how the 36-hour plan will work have not been ironed out. Administrators in municipal courts say all kinds of scenarios have been bandied about.

But all agree that a judge would have to work on Saturday to see to it that Orange County lives within the 36-hour rule.

Kuhel said Central Court would not be able to hold Saturday sessions without getting an additional judicial officer, which could mean a judge from another Municipal Court, a court commissioner or even a Superior Court judge.

Alan Slater, Superior Court administrator, said the Superior Court judges have agreed to cooperate if they have to be pressed into service.

“The problem in the past has not been that the judges don’t want to work on Saturdays,” Slater said. “Their concern is whether it would accomplish anything worthwhile.”

For example, state law permits judges to take a plea from a defendant, either guilty or not guilty, on the weekend. But the law does not permit weekend sentencings. And in a majority of the cases, defendants plead guilty and want their sentences so they don’t have to return to court.

The case before Gadbois was a class-action suit brought by three Orange County Jail inmates who had detained three days or longer before making their first court appearances.

Herman, the ACLU attorney, said the case before Gadbois is just the beginning.

“Our goal is to get court appearances for people within 24 hours instead of 36,” Herman said. “When a person is arrested, there is no reason for the arresting officer not to have his paper work ready before the end of his eight-hour shift.

Herman said that is a standard practice for Orange County sheriff’s deputies and that the sheriff’s office has a good track record of speedy court appearances for arrestees.

Herman complained that too often a police officer arrests someone, say for public drunkenness, but never intends to fill out any paper work or follow up. That person, Herman claimed, sits in jail over the weekend unaware that no one is pursuing a case against him.

Stafford said he hopes to present an outline on how the 36-hour plan can be implemented within the next two weeks.