Civil Cases Again Give Way to Criminal Trials : Superior Court Judges Focus on Backlog Resulting From New Policy by D.A.

For the second successive week, many Orange County Superior Court judges set aside civil cases Monday to focus on a steadily mounting backlog of criminal trials.

The demand for courtrooms for criminal trials has tripled since October, when Orange County Dist. Atty. Cecil Hicks prohibited his deputies from discussing felony cases in judges’ chambers. Defense attorneys say they often cannot ethically discuss their cases in open court and therefore must take them to trial rather than settling them through plea bargains.

“We know we have 25 criminal cases in trial today, down a little from the middle of last week,” said Alan Slater, executive officer of the courts. “We’re doing about the same as we were last week; there’s no major difference.”

Lawyers who handle civil litigation have expressed concern that the prosecutors’ new policy may squeeze them out of court, delaying justice for their clients. In California, criminal cases are entitled by law to priority over civil cases when courtrooms are scarce.

There were 55 new criminal trials scheduled for Monday. About five were assigned to courtrooms. The remainder were postponed or ended in bargained pleas, Slater said.

On Monday, Judge Ragnar R. Engebretsen, normally assigned to the group of judges who hear family-law disputes, was presiding over a criminal case. The trial, which began Friday afternoon, marked the first time since Hicks announced his new policy that a judge from a divorce division had been assigned to hear a criminal matter.

Hicks’ chief assistant, Michael R. Capizzi, called the situation “pretty much business as usual” from his perspective.

Assistant Public Defender Michael P. Giannini, a critic of Hicks’ policy, said the change ultimately will force civil litigants out of court. Hicks has said the policy is simply an attempt to ensure that the public’s business is conducted in public rather than behind closed doors.

The critical point will be reached not during the holiday lull in the courts but in early 1987, Giannini said. “Let’s face it. The vast majority of people--judges, lawyers, jurors and criminal defendants--don’t want to be in trial Christmas Eve,” he said.