Supervisors Appeal for Review of Decision to Close Night Court

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors asked the Superior Court Tuesday to delay the scheduled shutdown of its popular night court experiment pending further consideration of whether the move is warranted.

But the motion, passed on a vote of 3-2, is not expected to have any effect on the Superior Court, which sets its own policies.

After the hourlong board hearing, Superior Court Presiding Judge Ricardo A. Torres said he would ask his 17-member executive committee to consider the motion when it meets Nov. 19, but he acknowledged that he remains firm in his position that night court is unnecessary.

The executive committee voted Sept. 19 to terminate night court on Dec. 1.

During the hearing, Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner and Assistant Public Defender David Meyer reiterated their longstanding support of the 6-year-old experiment, which was designed to alleviate a case backlog caused by a shortage of courtrooms.

Under the program, three courtrooms in the downtown Criminal Courts Building are split into early morning and evening sessions, with the first shift beginning at 7 a.m. and the second that operates from 2:30 p.m. until 10:30 p.m. “There is no legitimate, bona fide reason to argue against night court,” Reiner told the supervisors. “By every single measure it is an unqualified success.”

Reiner said there is only one reason the Superior Court opposes night court. “They don’t want to work at night,” he declared.

Citing a recent report commissioned by the county, the district attorney said the central district, which includes the downtown Criminal Courts Building, will be short 26 criminal courtrooms by fiscal year 1995.

But Torres said the current shortage involves judicial officers, not courtrooms, and night court simply is not needed. To make up for the three courtrooms that will be lost when the split court program ends, he plans to transfer some death penalty cases and other time-consuming cases from downtown to the Van Nuys courthouse.

In his testimony, Meyer said such transfers are likely to result in considerable hardship for witnesses and raise “substantial constitutional problems” since most of the defendants being tried in the suburbs would be residents of the inner city.

In making his motion to refer the night court issue to the Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee, Supervisor Ed Edelman said the Superior Court “should realize they’re part of a system.” A countywide group, the committee is made up of prosecutors, public defenders, judges, probation officers and sheriffs.

The motion was supported by Supervisors Kenneth Hahn and Gloria Molina. Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who originally called for a hearing on the judges’ decision, voted against Edelman’s motion, along with Supervisor Deane Dana.