Courting to Children’s Special Needs : Playroom Helps Ease the Stress on Young Witnesses, Parents

Down the hall from a burglary and car theft hearing, a 6-year-old girl builds an imaginary camera with plastic blocks.

She and her younger brother and sister are in shiny Room 2806 of the County Courthouse while their mother testifies in court. The playroom, which opened its doors last week, is the first facility in the county for children who must testify in court or children of adults who must testify, and officials say it’s long overdue.

Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Zumwalt said she has seen as many as 20 children at a time wandering the halls of the downtown courthouse, many of them unattended. She said she got concerned, along with other judges, “after seeing six to eight kids a day in a cloud of cigarette smoke and some lying on the floor.” She said court employees resorted to giving children cardboard boxes to create play boxcars or took them into their offices.

The problem often spread into the courtroom.

“Many cases were lost because of the stress the children have to go through,” said Jeanette Roache, adminstrative aide to Assemblywoman Sunny Mojonnier, who is working to equip the room. She said the intimidating atmosphere hampered the testimony of some children and that parents who testified were distracted by uncertainty about their child’s activities outside the chambers.

An increase in children testifying in battery and child abuse cases and changes in family structure that have left fewer baby sitters in the family have brought more children than ever to the courthouse in recent years, officials said.

A highly publicized incident was largely responsible for galvanizing action.

Three-year-old Maria Martin was kidnaped from a Coronado hotel in August, 1981, and in a 1984 trial Maria broke down on the witness stand. Karen Adams, owner of a Coronado children’s store who escorted Maria to court, said the drawn-out trial and extended waits in the stark hallway were traumatic for the child.

“I couldn’t believe that there was no place for child witnesses,” Adams said. “It struck me that we hadn’t done a very good job as adults at accommodating the children.”

After the case, support grew among the San Diego County supervisors, who allotted about $12,000 to construct walls in a hallway corner to create a room.

“Maria’s case kind of served as an inspiration for this type of room in the courthouse,” said an aide to Supervisor Susan Golding. “That kind of projected the need for a facility where children could wait in a comfortable area that’s not frightening, but also where we could educate them on the courtroom process without scaring the heck out of them.”

William Pierce, executive officer of the Superior Court, found space for the room and Maria herself suggested some details in a letter. She said the room should have a small table and chairs, coloring books, flowers in a vase, a rug, a television with VCR, toys, a phone and no paintings-- “all the things we were missing when we were in the hallway,” Adams said.

Today, Maria’s suggested interior is nearly finished, although her request for an ice cream machine and basketball net have been deemed too extravagant. The room officially opens July 31, and Pam Piehl, full-time volunteer administrator for the room and its volunteer staff, said it will serve as an experiment that will be followed in the three other county courthouses in Chula Vista, El Cajon and Vista.

She said as many as 10 children could stay in the room at once, but said it would not be a child care center for lawyers, judges or jurors.

Money to spruce up the room has come from the Child Abuse Prevention Foundation and donations. The room’s steering committee is seeking an $18,000 grant to pay a permanent director for the four county rooms, and committee members are hoping to attract up to 25 volunteers to staff the San Diego room. Roache said she is negotiating with Disney Studios for an animated film to explain the court system to children in the room.