Probe Sought in Dismissal of Traffic Tickets

Los Angeles City Atty. James K. Hahn called Wednesday for an investigation of charges that attorneys temporarily sitting as judges in West Los Angeles traffic court have dismissed dozens of traffic tickets for no legitimate reason.

The request for the probe was made in identical letters Hahn sent to Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner and Sam Cordova, chairman of the Los Angeles County Grand Jury. A member of Hahn’s staff released copies of the letter to the media.

“I think we need to find out just what was going on in that courthouse and whether or not there was any conspiracy to obstruct justice,” Hahn told The Times. Because obstruction of justice is a felony, Hahn said, his office does not have the authority to look into the allegations.

J. Schuyler Sprowles, a spokesman for Reiner, said the district attorney’s office had already begun looking into the matter as the result of a KNBC-TV broadcast Tuesday night that raised questions about the way traffic tickets are handled in the West Los Angeles court.

“We’re pleased the city attorney has indicated his willingness to cooperate,” Sprowles said Wednesday, after Reiner received Hahn’s letter.

Cordova could not be reached for comment.

Judges Pro Tem

A recent audit conducted by officials of the Los Angeles Municipal Court determined that about 90 traffic tickets handled in the West Los Angeles branch had been dismissed for no apparent reason by so-called judges pro tem during an unspecified period of six to eight months this year, a court official said Wednesday.

Richard G. Berry, the supervising judge of the West Los Angeles branch, estimated that Division 97, the branch’s traffic court, handled between 20,000 and 30,000 tickets during that period.

Attorneys are named to act as temporary judges to hear traffic cases about 20 days a year, Berry said, when the regular traffic court judge is on vacation or has been reassigned to another courtroom.

Berry said he learned of the alleged improprieties in late September, after KNBC reporters began looking into the situation.

The judge said he immediately relieved of their responsibilities each of about 20 attorneys who had been on the list of lawyers willing to act as temporary judges and had instituted other procedures to make sure that no tickets are dismissed without proper cause.

‘Despise . . . Injudiciousness’

Among other steps, Berry said, he ordered the traffic court clerk not to dismiss any citation unless the reason for doing so is clearly stated in court records, a practice that is required by law but apparently had not been carefully observed. The supervising judge said he also put an end to the practice of placing unscheduled traffic ticket hearings on the court calendar on days when attorneys sit on the traffic court bench.

“I’ve done everything assiduously I can think of to do,” Berry said. “I despise any injudiciousness in the handling of tickets. But given the system, given the number of tickets, I sure as hell can’t assure anybody that there couldn’t be a dismissal that is questionable.”

After the audit identified the 90 questionable tickets, Berry said, he ordered clerks to write to each offender involved and to ask who represented them and why the case had been dismissed. Those letters were mailed last week, the judge said.