Anaheim : County Raises Stakes in Court Fight to Build Jail

The legal battle over the county’s proposed new jail near Anaheim Stadium escalated dramatically in cost Tuesday, with the Board of Supervisors authorizing up to $225,000 for outside lawyers.

The Los Angeles law firm of Kadison, Pfaelzer, Woodard, Quinn & Rossi, which originally estimated that it could handle the county’s fight against the City of Anaheim for $75,000, said the lawsuit required “far more extensive legal services” than first thought.

County Supervisor Don R. Roth, whose district includes the planned jail site and who voted against the original $75,000, cast the only vote against the $225,000 authorization Tuesday. The other four supervisors approved the expenditure without discussion.

On Dec. 17, the supervisors voted to build a 1,581-inmate jail on a vacant, county-owned site at Katella Avene and Douglass Road, half a mile from Anaheim Stadium. Within minutes, the City of Anaheim filed a lawsuit to block the plan, contending that the environmental impact report on the project was flawed.

Some county officials have questioned whether the jail will ever be built. They said the proposed expansion of a branch jail in Anaheim and the planned construction of a 6,000-bed jail at a site not yet chosen may make the Anaheim jail unnecessary.

The supervisors stepped up the search for more jail beds after a federal judge in March, 1985, found them in contempt for not ending overcrowding at the main men’s jail in downtown Santa Ana.

The supervisors picked the Anaheim site because it was county-owned and would not require a year or more of negotiations with a private owner.