Court Jam Puts Justice at Risk, O.C. Judges Say

By BONNIE HARRIS HAYES

Aug. 10, 1998 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

It’s gotten so crowded at the South County courthouse that marshals sometimes have to chain defendants to metal chairs in the hallways.

That janitors and clerks share storage closets packed with mops and cleaners.

That defense lawyers and clients bellow at each other through a noisy cell in front of 80 other inmates before finally giving up altogether.

Jurors are corralled into a once-condemned fire station with a single working restroom. To give jurors more places to sit, one judge drove to a nearby hardware store and returned with a stack of plastic patio chairs.

“We are pedaling straight toward a major breakdown,” Municipal Judge Carl Biggs said. “We can only squeeze a place so far, and this place is bone dry.”

While the struggle for elbow room is nothing new at the Laguna Niguel courthouse, officials say it has resulted in new levels of inefficiency and confusion.

The crunch is expected to worsen over the next decade, as the population of South County--being developed more quickly than any other area of the county--swells to 1 million people by 2010.

South County judges have been campaigning for a new courthouse for years and this spring threatened to sue the county if it does not move forward with an expansion plan. The Board of Supervisors has vowed to build a new courthouse but continues to squabble with judges over its size.

As the political bickering drags on, judges fear the overcrowding is posing a threat to the administration of justice.

Their greatest concern is the increasing number of trials delayed because of a shortage of courtrooms. On any given day, about 70 cases are set to go to trial in just five South County courtrooms--making it the most packed municipal court in the state, according to a 1997 California Judicial Council study.

At times, the delays have stretched dangerously close to defendants’ speedy-trial deadline, which usually is 10 days after their arraignments.

If the trial doesn’t begin within this period and the defense refuses to grant an extension, the case must be dropped and the defendant set free. Officials said this hasn’t happened, but they worry about the growing number of close calls.

Another problem is the shortage of jurors. The makeshift assembly room in the fire station cannot hold a jury pool large enough to handle South County’s caseload, causing more delays for some trials.

Little Space for Jurors

This problem was illustrated during the start of a drunk-driving trial last month. Judge Pamela L. Iles found herself without enough jurors to begin the case, which had reached its 10-day deadline to go to trial.

The jury pool of about 100 people had been whittled down so quickly by afternoon--with all but a handful of jurists assigned to other trials or dismissed from duty--that Iles faced having to let a defendant go free.

To save the case, she considered sending a bailiff over to the shopping center next door to “do some body snatching,” she said. Lawyers for both sides agreed to a delay, however, and the drastic measure was not necessary in the end.

“She basically said she was going to go kidnap people in the market and tell them they were now on jury duty, effective immediately,” Deputy Public Defender David Dworakowski said. “The funny thing is it would have been totally legal. There’s a statute that says she could have done just that.”

Dworakowski said that while the incident was unusual, it could signal a troubling future in the South County court. He said he wonders how such “legal leeways” can possibly continue.

“Our concern is, of course, for the defendants and their rights,” Dworakowski said. “Before anybody can even look at the issues of a case, much less plan for a trial, we have to address the space issue. Where are we going to do this? What courtroom will be available? Where is everybody going to sit? It’s terribly distracting and certainly not in the best interest of justice.”

Added Iles: “Working here is like inviting 100 people to your house every day and nobody leaves.”

There is little argument that new court space in South County is needed. The Board of Supervisors last year set aside $5 million for a courthouse design and agreed in March that funding for a new facility should be one of the county’s top priorities for its five- to 10-year strategic plan.

Just how much space is needed, however, is another story. Officials originally had planned to build a 295,000-square-foot courthouse with 19 courtrooms in the new South County community of Ladera, at a cost of $54 million.

But county Chief Executive Officer Jan Mittermeier recently proposed a much smaller, 87,000-square-foot facility with a $20-million price tag and only 11 courtrooms. She said her proposal represented the most the county could afford to spend.

Iles and other judges exploded over the idea, arguing a courthouse that size would not be a big improvement over the current one.

“They just never learn,” Iles said of the proposal. “We’re trying to plan for growth down here. If they give us that, we’ll be back with our hands out before construction’s even finished.”

When court officials threatened legal action over the crowded conditions in March, county supervisors asked for a month to forge a compromise on the size of a new facility. The month dragged on. An agreement has yet to be reached.

Meanwhile, the cramped quarters are causing security issues for marshals and headaches for the public.

Confusion Over Other Locations

Visitors who come to the Crown Valley Parkway courthouse to pay traffic fines are sent to a rented office building eight miles away. The inconvenience often means extra trips and late or missed court appearances.

Rose Neely waited 30 minutes at the clerk’s office on the day of her traffic court case, only to be told she was in the wrong building in the wrong city.

“It’s where? Laguna Hills?” Neely, 30, asked the man behind the counter. “What is that all about? I’m going to be late now. There’s just no way.”

“I know,” the man replied. “About six other people did the same thing today. Too bad you guys couldn’t all carpool over there or something.”

Downstairs in the muggy bowels of the courthouse, public defender Chuck Haase struggled to be heard above the clamor of doors locking and keys jangling and mobs of inmates mumbling. He shouted into the metal cage where his client and dozens of other defendants were held behind bars.

“I know you can’t hear me!” Haase roared above the din. He shifted a stack of case files from hip to hip and waved a hand in disgust. “Man, there’s no way I can do this. Forget it.”

To make room for defense attorneys like Haase to meet alone with clients before walking into court, six deputy marshals must give up their break room. A janitor must lose his supply closet. A dozen clerks must vacate their storage cubicles.

But there still won’t be a way for Orange County Marshal’s Department Lt. Scott J. Bowen to avoid escorting handcuffed inmates out of the courthouse into makeshift trailer courts in the parking lot--a security risk he said is “nothing short of a potential disaster.”

“It really bothers me. . . . There are schools and houses all around us,” said Bowen, who worked as a deputy at the courthouse 20 years ago. “They have to do something for us, something permanent. I don’t know how I’m going to manage another courtroom in the parking lot.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Space Crunch

For years, officials in South County have been waging a campaign for a bigger courthouse, as judges continue to juggle more cases than any other court in the state and development continues to draw more people into the area. Plans for a new courthouse would include 11 courtrooms initially, with enough space for eight more. Offices, courtrooms and other services have outgrown the building on Crown Valley Parkway in Laguna Niguel and are now divided into a cluster of trailers and rented office space eight miles away.

CURRENT COURTHOUSE

TOTAL square footage: 70,220

Main building: 32,200 square feet

Trailers and other buildings: 38,020 square feet

Public defender trailer DA trailer

Jury Services (former firhouse)

Conference room trailer

Volunteer trailer

PROPOSED COURTHOUSE

TOTAL square footage: 295,000

Finished courthouse would have 19 courtrooms on three floors, including probation and parole offices.

Source: South Orange County Court Administration; Researched by BONNIE HAYES and JANICE JONES DODDS/Los Angeles Times