Judge Emerges as an ‘Unlikely Villain’ in U.S. Obstruction Suit

The unlikely villain of the Justice Department’s obstruction suit against Los Angeles officials is a chunky, 48-year-old father of four who heads the world’s largest Juvenile Court and still finds time to coach Little League baseball.

Coaching helps his perspective, said Gabriel A. Gutierrez, presiding judge of Los Angeles County Juvenile Court for the last 15 months.

“When you deal with children in a court setting, you tend to think that every one is either abused or a criminal,” Gutierrez explained Thursday. “You need--or at least I do--to get into normality, into a world in which the main issue is whether you’re gonna get a hit or not. There are an awful lot of good kids out there; we only see a small percentage.”

Gutierrez, the eldest son of Mexican immigrants, has always been around children--he has 10 brothers and sisters, four sons and a legal career that has focused on working with juveniles--and he likes to talk both about children’s dual needs for discipline and protection.

Refused Access

It is his sense of the latter that landed him in hot water with the Justice Department, the latest in a long line of agencies and individuals to whom he has refused access to the records and facilities he controls.

He said he is authorized by state law to protect children under court jurisdiction against “unnecessary harassment” or violation of their privacy, adding that “I take that obligation very seriously.”

A native of Los Angeles, Gutierrez attended Holy Cross, St. Cecilia’s and St. Agnes schools and earned undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Santa Clara.

After passing the Bar in 1965, Gutierrez worked first for the criminal division of the U.S. attorney’s office here, then for the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in Washington.

After a stint as a lawyer in private practice specializing in construction industry civil cases and as deputy director of the Los Angeles Legal Aid Foundation, he was appointed a Superior Court commissioner and served as a Municipal Court judge for two years.

‘Kiddy Court’

In 1979, he was elevated to Superior Court by then-Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. and was assigned to the Juvenile Division. Unlike many judges who view Juvenile Court as a “kiddy court” they must rotate through before handling “real” cases, Gutierrez said he welcomed the post, because it offered “an opportunity to make changes, to affect the lives of children.”

“And it turned out to be my entire career,” he said.

In 1981, he established the North East Juvenile Justice Center at Eastlake, a model program in which a single judge hears all cases involving youngsters from the area and works with panels composed of probation, police, school and court representatives to better handle cases.

Appointed by Superior Court Presiding Judge Tom Johnson to head the Juvenile Court four years later, Gutierrez oversees 45 dependency and delinquency courts, which handle victims of abuse and neglect and child criminal offenders as well. Last year, it acted on 41,000 petitions and currently maintains jurisdiction over more than 23,000 youngsters.

Fair and Interested

While some say that he is not a strong guiding presence in the Juvenile Court, Gutierrez is generally regarded as fair and interested in the welfare of children.

The single blot on his record appears to be a 1972 incident involving an allegedly “improper” telephone call made to a female litigant in a case before him that resulted in a six-month suspension without pay.

Gutierrez has successfully pushed for an expansion of the Child Advocates Office (volunteers who assist in Dependency Court) and said two courts will be operating at MacLaren Children’s Center, the county’s facility for abused and neglected children in El Monte, by next spring. He has recruited judges interested in working with children from other courts and added training sessions for new Juvenile Court judges.

Separate Facility

His goals include moving the Juvenile Court out of the crowded downtown Criminal Courts Building to a separate facility at Eastlake, with additional courts at MacLaren and in the South Bay or Valley area.

He said he is still looking for answers to the continued overcrowding at the county’s Juvenile Hall, where nearly 800 of the 1,900 residents (more than 500 over capacity) are on a waiting list for juvenile camps or other placements.

He has been married for 20 years to a public health nurse in East Los Angeles. Both speak fluent Spanish--Gutierrez because of his background, his wife because of her experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia.