Budget Cuts in D.A.’s Office Leave 3 Courtrooms Without Key Players

When the first case was called Monday in Ventura County Municipal Judge John E. Dobroth’s courtroom, something was missing: a prosecutor.

There were plenty of defendants. About 35 jail inmates sat behind a glass screen waiting to be called. Others who had posted bail sat in the audience.

And there was the usual complement of defense attorneys, although the two deputy public defenders who handled most of the cases looked as if they could use a hand with their heavy caseload.

The only thing missing was a deputy district attorney--someone to represent the agency that had filed all those cases in the first place.

Under a new policy that took effect Monday, the Ventura County district attorney’s office is no longer staffing misdemeanor arraignments in three courtrooms, including Dobroth’s. Kevin J. McGee, assistant chief deputy district attorney, said the pullback was necessary because the Board of Supervisors cut the district attorney’s budget last week.

But Public Defender Kenneth I. Clayman said the change may force him to ask for a budget increase. The absence of a prosecutor may result in more cases going to trial, Clayman said, and if so, he said he will need more staff to handle them.

“Our clients are going to suffer because the D.A. is not there,” Clayman said.

The Municipal Court’s presiding judge, Herbert Curtis III, took a wait-and-see attitude. “We just don’t know what the impact will be,” Curtis said. “It may be great, it may be none.”

In a criminal case, arraignment is where the defendant hears the charges against him. If necessary, an attorney is appointed. Then the defendant is asked to enter a plea.

Until Monday, many defendants would plead guilty at arraignment to one or two charges in exchange for having the prosecutor drop other charges. If the defendant wanted to know how much jail time he was facing, the judge would usually tell him.

But with no prosecutor present, there was nobody to drop charges in exchange for a guilty plea. And Dobroth refused to give any clues about how he would sentence someone who pleaded guilty, in keeping with a judicial canon that prohibits a judge from discussing a case when one of the parties is absent.

“The problem is, we have defendants who want to dispose of their cases,” Deputy Public Defender Neil B. Quinn told Dobroth.

Dobroth said his hands were tied. Normally, he said, “You and the district attorney look at the evidence and make plea bargains . . . and the court usually concurs. But when one side is absent, it’s hard for the court to concur.”

So with no prosecutor to make deals and the judge unwilling to state his probable sentence, few defendants represented by the public defender’s office entered a guilty plea Monday. Instead, they asked for jury trials.

No overall figures were available, but in Courtroom 10, a traffic court, 16 cases were set for trial, four times the normal number, Clayman said. At least that many were also scheduled for trial by Dobroth in Courtroom 11, and a smaller number of cases heard in Courtroom 13 were scheduled for trial.

Clayman said some of the cases could be resolved at the trial-setting conference, where a deputy district attorney will be present.

Quinn said the new system just moves the district attorney’s work from one courtroom to another. “It’s amazing how short-sighted people are,” he said. “They’re cutting off their nose to spite their face.”

McGee said the district attorney’s office regrets having to leave courtrooms unstaffed and will re-examine the policy if necessary. “We are always evaluating it,” he said. “We’d rather be there than not be there, but given the realities, we had to make the cuts someplace. The great bulk of the cases that go through those courts are fairly standard.”

Municipal Judge Barry B. Klopfer said the change is “a matter of great concern.”

“Any time anyone jumps in with a significant change in the system, we all hold our breath, waiting to see what happens,” he said. “But I think it’s too early to push the panic button. We have a way of finding equilibrium again.”