4 Officers to Be Tried in Spartan Conditions : Rodney King case: The courthouse in Simi Valley has been virtually empty and unused since opening in March. There are no amenities.

Selecting Simi Valley as an alternative site for the trial of four Los Angeles police officers accused in the beating of Rodney G. King was the easy part.

But accommodating the lawyers and jurors who will be involved in the case is another matter.

Defense attorneys have been told that there is no office space available for them at the East Ventura County Courthouse. Prosecutors must provide their own desks, chairs, fax machines, photocopiers and filing cabinets because there is no existing office furniture or equipment for them to use.

And everyone, including the more than 250 people who are expected to participate in the jury-selection process on Feb. 5, has been advised to bring a lunch; there is no cafeteria or snack bar at the courthouse.

In fact, the Simi Valley courthouse has been virtually empty and unused since the $11.1-million facility opened in March, said Vince Ordonez, assistant director of Ventura County’s Superior Courts.

Only one of five courtrooms is used--for traffic-related hearings--because there has been no money available to hire more judges and court commissioners, he said.

“The courthouse was built to handle future growth,” Ordonez said. “It was never intended to be used completely on Day One.”

Despite its obvious drawbacks, Ordonez said the courthouse in Simi Valley is still preferable to the main county courthouse in Ventura. That 29-courtroom facility is already overloaded with cases, and its parking facilities are too congested, he said.

Meanwhile, Ordonez and his staff are doing everything they can to accommodate the needs of the jurors and the dozens of reporters, photographers, court watchers and court personnel who will be on hand for the trial, scheduled to begin March 4.

Because the courtroom seats only 45 spectators, an adjacent room is being converted into a pressroom complete with closed-circuit television, telephones, tables and chairs. Between 60 and 70 members of the media are expected to cover the trial.

Two dirt lots near the courthouse are also being cleared to ensure that enough parking is available.

One of the heaviest traffic days is expected Feb. 5, when a pool of 250 prospective jurors will be screened by attorneys, Ordonez said. If they are unable to select 12 jurors and six alternates among the group, another pool of 250 candidates will be called in at a later date, he said.

Ordonez said prospective jurors have been advised to bring sack lunches, but that they will be provided with information on restaurants and fast-food establishments nearby.

Steps are even being taken to ensure the comfort of Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stanley Weisberg, who will preside over the trial.

The judge’s bench is being raised to give him a better perspective on the proceedings, Ordonez said. He said the contractor who built the courthouse made the benches too low.

“We requested that the benches be identical in size and height to the benches in Ventura,” he said. “But somehow things got mixed up and the benches ended up being seven inches shorter.”

Meanwhile, Ventura County Sheriff’s Sgt. Gary Freeman, who is in charge of security for the trial, said he expects to have between seven and 10 deputies available to him each day of the trial. He said a walk-through metal detector will also be used to provide extra security.

Freeman said Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials did not experience any major security problems during pretrial proceedings, and that he does not expect any.

“There’s no reason to believe that there will be any,” he said.

All local costs for trial security and court supervision will be charged to Los Angeles County, Ordonez said.

There is one thing that court officials cannot provide, he said, and that is office space for the four defense attorneys.

He said no extra space is available. Even if the space were available, he said, court officials have been advised by the county counsel’s office not to open it to the defense.

“It could be viewed as a gift of public funds,” Ordonez said. He added that if any documents belonging to the officers’ attorneys were lost or stolen from a room that was made available to them, the county could be held liable.

“We don’t have anything they could secure,” he said. “We just don’t have a place.”

Attorneys Michael Stone, who is representing Officer Laurence Powell, and John Barnett, who is representing Officer Theodore Briseno, said they are outraged that they cannot use courthouse facilities.

“It’s absurd,” Stone said. “We’re talking about trucking 80 boxes of materials back and forth to the courthouse every day. I don’t see how they expect us to function.”

Stone said Los Angeles County Court officials have previously made space available to him in special cases.

Barnett said he is worried about not having a secure place for his client to relax away from the public.

“We’ll pay for it,” he said. “We’re not asking for a free ride.”

Lawyers for Sgt. Stacy Koon and Officer Timothy Wind could not be reached for comment.

But Stone and Barnett said they plan to go before Judge Weisberg today to ask for his help in resolving the matter.

It was Weisberg who decided to move the trial to Ventura County after rejecting such alternative sites as Orange, Riverside and Alameda counties.

The long-awaited trial was ordered moved out of Los Angeles County in July by an appellate court, which ruled that excessive publicity and a highly charged political climate had made it impossible for the officers to get a fair hearing. Defense attorneys requested the change of venue.