500 Welcome $52-Million Courthouse in Van Nuys

A gleaming new Van Nuys Municipal Courthouse was hailed by in dedication ceremonies Friday as a major step toward easing courtroom crowding and for showing Los Angeles County’s commitment to the San Fernando Valley.

County Supervisors Edmund D. Edelman and Mike Antonovich and state Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys) presided over the dedication of the $52-million, 11-story building, which is undergoing final inspection by county officials and architects. Judges and court employees hope to move in before the end of the year.

“Many people in the San Fernando Valley have often felt shortchanged because Los Angeles government is located over the hill,” Edelman said. “This shows the commitment of the government to the San Fernando Valley.”

Edelman said the granite-and-glass courthouse in the Van Nuys Civic Center would help ease crowding at the Van Nuys judicial complex, which is the busiest Municipal Court outside downtown Los Angeles.

More than 500 people, including numerous Los Angeles Municipal and Superior Court judges, attended the afternoon ceremony. Municipal Judge Aviva A. Bobb, supervising judge of the courthouse, said she was excited about the building, and “had been waiting for months to move in.”

State Supreme Court Justice Malcolm M. Lucas, the ceremony’s keynote speaker, joked that several Van Nuys Superior Court judges were so jealous of the new facility that workmen during construction hurriedly chiseled “Van Nuys Municipal Court” over the front entrance.

Against the background of judicial efforts to handle heavy court caseloads, Lucas said, he “found it particularly exciting that the municipal courts will benefit from such a facility.” He said it was in the “vanguard” of court facilities.

The 23-room courthouse includes a 3-story glass rotunda and 18 trial courtrooms, including one high-security courtroom where bulletproof glass separates spectators from trial participants. Another glass compartment will separate the prisoner from the rest of the courtroom.

The security measures were planned after a gun battle March 9 in the old Van Nuys Municipal Courthouse, in which a wounded bailiff shot a gunman to death.

The courthouse contains five “high-volume” courtrooms--used for arraignment and small claims cases--that could accommodate 166 people at once.

The building was constructed with money from Robbins’ Courthouse Construction Fund, which accrues receipts from penalties on traffic and parking citations. Robbins said Friday the courthouse would be instrumental “in bringing justice to the San Fernando Valley.”

The Van Nuys Municipal Court currently occupies seven trailers, six wooden bungalows and a floor of the Superior Court Building next to the new building.