County Study Finds Antelope Valley Is at Least 1 Judge Short : Lancaster: By year’s end, cases filed in Superior Court will more than triple the 1986 total of 328 cases, a report says.

The number of criminal cases handled by the Antelope Valley’s lone Superior Court judge increased significantly in the first six months of this year, continuing a dramatic four-year rise, according to statistics released Monday.

Court officials said the numbers, which were compiled as part of an ongoing study by the Lancaster office of Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner, underscore the need for at least one more Superior Court judge in Lancaster.

By the end of this year the number of cases filed in Superior Court will more than triple the 1986 total of 328 cases, according to the study. Prosecutors filed 510 cases in the first six months of 1990 and a total of more than 1,000 are projected, a third more than last year.

In addition, projections indicate that 550 criminals will be committed to state prison from the court this year, five times more than the 105 committed in 1986. There were 274 state prison commitments in the first half of the year, compared to 447 in all of 1989.

Chief Deputy County Clerk Eric Webber said Monday that rapid population and crime increases have increased the need for more judges in the Antelope Valley. But Webber, whose office administers the court system, said there is a shortage of judges throughout the county.

“It’s a systemwide problem,” he said. “It may be more acute in the Antelope Valley, but the solution needs to be systemwide.”

Lancaster Superior Court Judge Margaret M. Grignon is responsible for felony criminal cases as well as civil cases and some family law cases. A part-time commissioner hears juvenile cases and another commissioner handles family and probate law.

Statistics show a need for two more judicial officers, according to Superior Court administrators in Los Angeles. A new county Courthouse that would add about nine Superior Court judges is planned for construction in the next five years, but court officials said the problem cannot wait.

Grignon said in an interview Monday that she asked Presiding Judge Richard P. Byrne to assign another judge in the Antelope Valley last year. She said that while discussions of the request continue, she has been forced to postpone hearing civil and family cases and transfer an increasing number of criminal cases out of the Antelope Valley into the San Fernando courts.

“What’s happening at this point is that I am overwhelmed with criminal cases,” said Judge Grignon, who is known for maintaining long court hours and doing work at home. “I cannot handle civil cases anymore.”

The workload has strained other court agencies, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Stephen Lawrence Cooley, head of the district attorney’s office in Lancaster.

“The failure to assign an adequate number of judges has put an excessively high number of cases in one court and impacts all the other support agencies involved, because our staff assignments are based on the number of judges we serve,” he said.

When the caseload study is complete, a local committee of justice officials, chaired by County Supervisor Mike Antonovich’s Antelope Valley deputy, plans to present the findings to Judge Byrne, officials said.