Space Is Tight in Simi Valley for Lawyers, Jurors at King Trial

The easy part was selecting Simi Valley as the alternate site for the trial of four Los Angeles police officers accused in the beating of Rodney G. King.

But accommodating the lawyers and jurors is another matter.

Defense attorneys have been told there is no office space for them at the East Ventura County Courthouse. Even prosecutors must bring their own desks, chairs, fax machines, photocopiers and filing cabinets; there is nothing available for them there.

Everyone--including the more than 250 people expected to participate in jury selection Feb. 5--has been advised to bring a sack lunch. There is no restaurant and no snack bar at the courthouse.

In fact, the $1.1-million Simi Valley courthouse has stood virtually empty and unused since it opened last March, said Vince Ordonez, assistant director of the Ventura County Superior Courts.

Only one of five courtrooms is used--for traffic-related hearings--because there has been no money to hire 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 the drawbacks, the courthouse in Simi Valley is preferable to the main county courthouse in Ventura, Ordonez said. That 29-courtroom facility is overloaded with cases, and parking is too congested.

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

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

Two dirt lots near the courthouse are being cleared to guarantee enough parking.

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 12 jurors and six alternates cannot be selected from that group, another 250 will be called in.

Prospective jurors have been advised to bring sack lunches, but they also will be given a list of nearby restaurants and fast-food establishments, Ordonez said.

Steps are even being taken to better accommodate 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 view of the proceedings. The contractor who built the courthouse, Ordonez said, made the benches too low--seven inches shorter than those in the Ventura courthouse.

Meanwhile, Ventura County Sheriff’s Sgt. Gary Freeman, in charge of security for the trial, said he expects to have seven to 10 deputies on hand, and a walk-through metal detector will also provide security.

Freeman said Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials did not run into any major security problems in pretrial proceedings, and “there’s no reason to believe that there will be any” during the trial.

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

A dispute over whether office space would be provided to the five defense attorneys was resolved Monday when Weisberg intervened in their behalf.

Court officials had been advised by the Ventura County Counsel’s Office not to provide the space because, according to Ordonez, such action “could be viewed as a gift of public funds.” In addition, he said, if any defense documents were lost or stolen from a room the county had provided, the county could be held liable.

Attorney Michael Stone, who represents Officer Laurence M. Powell and John Barnett, Officer Theodore J. Briseno’s attorney, said they were outraged at being denied access to courthouse facilities.

At a pretrial hearing Monday in Los Angeles, the two complained to Weisberg, noting that space is being provided for the media and prosecution. It was Weisberg who decided to move the trial to Ventura County after rejecting such sites as Orange, Riverside and Alameda counties.

Weisberg called a brief recess, contacted Ventura officials by phone and returned to the bench. “Space will be available for you,” he told the defense team. “What space, I don’t know, but space will be available.”