It Was a Dark Day for Troubled Courthouse, Jail

Power failures threw San Diego’s downtown County Courthouse and adjoining jail into darkness twice Tuesday, the second time causing court to be canceled, traffic tickets to be dismissed and some inmates to be transferred, court and jail officials said.

No one was hurt in the blackouts, although a handful of people had to be rescued from an elevator that stopped between floors during the first outage, Marshal Michael Sgobba said. The courthouse, partly evacuated after the first failure in the morning, was fully emptied after the second outage in the early afternoon.

The blackouts added yet another chaotic chapter to the lore of the building, officials said, referring to problems in recent months with asbestos, dim lights, air-conditioning outages, a leaky roof and a sewage spill.

“In this building, anything can happen,” Superior Court Judge Judith McConnell said.

“This building is pitiful,” said Judge Michael I. Greer, the San Diego Superior Court’s presiding judge. “We live in an asbestos-charged atmosphere which is unsafe. We haven’t had air conditioning all summer.

“I think this building ought to be torn down and the county ought to seriously consider building a structure for the public to work in, for judges, jurors and staff to work in.”

Both blackouts occurred because the building’s main circuit-breaker tripped, according to Milt Beard, an electrician supervisor with the county’s Department of General Services. Beard said, however, that it took crews from the county and San Diego Gas & Electric until late afternoon to figure out why the circuit-breaker flipped.

“We found a relay that was wired incorrectly,” Beard said. “We can’t determine how long it was wired that way and why it hasn’t affected us before.”

Crews also found a “secondary problem,” a burning underground cable, that “confused the issue and left us in the dark, so to speak, as to the real problem,” Beard said. After crews turned the power back on for the second time, at 4:46 p.m., they began repairing the cable, Beard said.

The first outage occurred at 8:50 a.m. The circuit-breaker serving the north block of the building “tried to trip,” but did not because of a faulty relay, a separate relay that turned out not to be the prime culprit, Beard said. The resulting surge of power tripped the main circuit-breaker, he said, turning off the lights, computers and electric locks in the jail doors.

Inmates Put in Cells

Sheriff’s deputies immediately put the inmates in their cells, then locked the doors the old-fashioned way, with keys, said Sgt. Jim Cooke. Lacking computers, jail officials also stopped processing incoming inmates, he said.

At the courthouse, “it was pretty strange,” said James Bishop, head deputy city attorney, who was in Municipal Court Judge E. Mac Amos’ courtroom when the lights went out. “The judge told everybody to calm down and made sure that everybody in custody was secured--thank God! It was a little nerve-wracking for a couple (of) moments.”

The four or five people--reports varied--trapped in the elevator were rescued. Marshals moved prisoners in the court back to jail. Marshals also directed traffic at the escalators, aiming flashlights so people could walk up and down to the second- and third-floor courtrooms.

The first outage ended at 10:23 a.m. Colleen Branchaud, 27, and Warren Tunnell, 29, both of El Cajon, who were still in line for a marriage license, waited just a bit longer for the document.

The outage was in no way an omen, Branchaud said. “We’re getting married this Friday--it’s Friday the 13th,” she said.

The second blackout struck about 12:50 p.m.

About 1:45 p.m., Amos announced that all traffic-related infractions scheduled for trial that afternoon would be dismissed because they could not be heard before the legal time limit.

“They had some loud cheers in (Amos’ court) when he did it,” said D. Kent Pedersen, the Municipal Court administrator.

Shortly after that, Municipal and Superior Court administrators canceled their calendars for the rest of the day and sent home their staffs.

“It’s a shame the lights went out,” said Elaine S. Nedegog, a court clerk, as she packed her things. “I’ve got a lot of work to do.”

“But it’s nice we’ve got another day off,” co-worker Joyce Taianao said.

Cases were to be rescheduled for either today or Thursday, Pedersen and Greer said.

At the jail, officials went back to their keys and sent a number of recently admitted men to the Vista jail, Deputy George Gardner said. The precise number transferred could not immediately be determined, Gardner said late Tuesday.

The dinner menu at the downtown jail featured cold sandwiches, Gardner said.

Just Another Irritation

Although courthouse observers called the blackouts frustrating and chaotic, they said they were not the worst of the problems that recently have plagued the building, which opened in 1961.

Last October, after an investigation found that asbestos had been flaking from ceilings of two courtrooms, the state Occupational Health and Safety Administration prohibited any work that might dislodge more asbestos. The agency specifically prohibited workers from entering crawl spaces above the ceiling panels.

This meant workers could not replace light bulbs that burned out in courtrooms and judges’ chambers. In March, after several months of dim light, Cal-OSHA relaxed the regulation, permitting work after hours by trained employees wearing protective gear.

The larger problem of how to deal with the asbestos that lurks throughout the 663,000-square-foot courthouse remains unresolved. Last month, the county sued 13 building manufacturers whose products were used in constructing the courthouse and jail, seeking to recover the cost--expected to be in the millions of dollars--of removing asbestos discovered last October.

Asbestos is known to cause asbestosis, lung cancer and a rare form of cancer called mesothelioma.

In April, 1988, while the building was being re-roofed, a storm poured rain into one wing of the fifth floor, causing a variety of small inconveniences.

The storm followed the March, 1988, sewer spill that flooded the building’s basement. Released from a nearby sewer main which ruptured during a construction project, the smelly effluent at one point was 6 inches deep, ruined furniture and prompted the Superior Court to close for a day and the Municipal Court for half a day.