Night Court : Judge Holds Marathon Court Session to Clear Backlog of Lawyer’s Cases

Angered by the repeated delays in cases handled by defense attorney Jack Alex, prosecutors readied for a confrontation in Citrus Municipal Court in West Covina.

In one case alone, they said, Alex obtained continuances 30 times.

Sometimes witnesses would forget key information, or disappear by the time their misdemeanor criminal cases came to trial.

So this week, prosecutors made their move.

On Wednesday, they asked Municipal Judge Michael B. Rutberg to remove Alex as the attorney on six long-delayed cases on the docket that day.

But the judge had a different idea.

When court began Thursday morning, Rutberg ordered Alex, 60, to begin trying the cases immediately. And the jurist vowed to keep his courtroom open from 9 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. for as many days as it would take to clear the backlog.

But late Thursday, Robert O. Young, the presiding judge, issued a memo ordering an end to late-night court sessions after today.

Young said, “Judge Rutberg is to be commended for his willingness to sacrifice his time by working a 12-hour day.” But he added, “Such a work day is unfair and jeopardizes the mental and physical health of all personnel involved.”

Earlier, Alex, himself a former Citrus Municipal Court judge, had said he was prepared for the 12-hour days in court and was feeling up to the “challenge.”

“It’s going to be fun for me,” Alex said. “Let’s see how many I can win.”

Late Thursday, a slightly rumpled Alex was picking a jury--his third of the day--and was already well into testimony on a drunk driving case.

After Rutberg announced his marathon intentions, the district attorney’s office assigned four prosecutors to handle Alex’s cases and Rutberg called in extra jurors.

Alex assured Rutberg that he could competently handle an assortment of misdemeanor cases at once, shifting from the defense of one accused drunk driver to another, and then on to such other matters as assault and petty theft.

Keep Cases Straight

Outside court early Thursday, Alex said he just hoped to keep the cases straight in his mind. He joked that he might find himself telling a jury that “I don’t know why my client hit that woman with a frying pan,” only to discover that the defendant is not charged with assault but drunk driving.

Prosecutors contend that Alex has been clogging the judicial system for years.

In 14 cases alone, they said, he obtained 190 continuances, meaning that witnesses had to be subpoenaed repeatedly, police officers had been alerted to testify--pushing up overtime--and the deputy district attorneys themselves wasted time preparing the same cases over and over.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Diana L. Smith complained that misdemeanor cases handled by Alex, which should be settled in six months under the court’s guidelines, often linger for a year or two.

Just last week, she said, one of his drunk driving cases was dismissed because the arresting officer had retired and moved away.

She submitted to the court a transcript of another of his cases last year in which the deputy district attorney had to ask a judge to dismiss a drunk driving charge, noting the case was so old that the arresting officers were “unable to remember independently from their police report the incident.”

Denies Delaying Cases

Alex denied that he deliberately delays cases, insisting that often when he is ready for trial, the prosecution is not.

The defense attorney said the district attorney’s office is upset because of his success in winning cases.

“I had 32 jury trials last year and I won about 30 of them,” Alex said.

But Smith disputed his claim, saying her records show that Alex is on a six-case losing streak.

At the start of court Thursday, she urged Rutberg to replace Alex on the six scheduled cases, instead of ordering the trials to begin.

“No attorney, whether it’s Mr. Alex or F. Lee Bailey or attorney X can try these cases (simultaneously) and represent their clients in the manner prescribed by law,” the prosecutor said.

Orders Trials to Go On

The judge, however, said that he had no right to replace Alex and that he was ordering the trials to go on in response to Smith’s argument that the cases should not be delayed further.

In addition to those jury trials in Rutberg’s court, Alex had cases scheduled in three other Citrus courtrooms Thursday. The district attorney’s office sought to remove Alex as attorney in two of those cases, but judges also rejected the motions.

Such requests to remove an attorney are rare, prosecutors said.

The backlog of cases has been a longstanding concern in the Citrus court system, Presiding Judge Young said, and focusing on continuances that have been granted to Alex oversimplifies a complex problem.

Young said that, in his experience, the prosecution causes as many delays in trials as the defense. And if everyone demanded a speedy trial, the Citrus court system would not have the courtrooms or the judges to handle the caseload, he said.

“Our volume is such that we have to be generous in granting continuances,” Young said.

Alex served as a Citrus judge for six years, until he was defeated for reelection by Young in 1974.

Before that, he was a deputy district attorney in charge of the El Monte branch. His wife, Nida Brinkis, is his law partner.