Attorneys, Officers Protest Plan to Close Newhall D.A.’s Office

Prosecutors and law enforcement officials in the Santa Clarita Valley expressed concern Friday about the proposed closure of the local district attorney’s office, saying it will inconvenience residents and delay criminal prosecutions.

Under the proposal, intended to help Los Angeles County reduce an $833-million budget shortfall, the eight-member office would be abolished and attorneys would prosecute cases in Newhall Municipal Court only a few days a week.

“It won’t be a five-day operation anymore,” said Gregory Thompson, chief deputy district attorney. “Will it be slower and less efficient? The total number of cases won’t change, but, yes, the cases will take longer to get to.”

Prosecutors filed 9,608 felony and misdemeanor cases out of the office on Valencia Boulevard in fiscal year 1991-92, said Earl Bradley, administrator of Newhall Municipal Court.

Without the office, witnesses and law enforcement officers involved in filing cases would have to travel about 12 miles away to the next nearest office in San Fernando, Thompson said.

“It reduces our effectiveness if we spend a lot of time on the freeway driving back and forth,” said Capt. Jerry Conklin, head of the Santa Clarita Station for the county Sheriff’s Department. “Something they would ordinarily do in five minutes by walking next door from the station to the D.A.’s office will now take an hour and a half or two hours.”

The mood in the Newhall district attorney’s office was gloomy Friday as employees grappled with the possibility of losing their jobs or being reassigned.

“It’s like finding out that Christmas has been canceled,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Brad Stone said.

“Crime is not going to stop because of budgetary cuts in the county,” he said. “If anything, there could be an increase.”

The recession-driven cutbacks proposed by Chief Administrative Officer Richard B. Dixon would affect a wide array of public services ranging from the welfare department to art museums. Six sheriff’s facilities--including the Malibu Station--the Mira Loma Jail in Lancaster and all 13 “area district attorney offices” located in municipal courts throughout the county would close.

“This makes the Prop. 13 cutbacks we experienced look kind of like a cakewalk,” Conklin said.

The County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to begin debating the proposed budget cuts at its meeting Tuesday. It remained unclear Friday how the supervisors would treat the district attorney’s office proposal.

But a spokeswoman for Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who represents the Santa Clarita Valley, said he opposes closure of the Newhall office.

“He’s against it because it would increase the amount of time victims would have to wait for their cases to go to trial, and it would also be an added burden to the local Sheriff’s Department,” said Lori Howard, Antonovich’s justice deputy.

Closing the Newhall district attorney’s office and laying off two of six attorneys assigned to the office would save the county $653,000, Thompson said.

“At a time when crime is rising, it doesn’t seem logical to take officers off the street to solve budget problems,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Pamela Davis-Springer, who heads the Newhall office.

Santa Clarita City Councilman George Pederson, who retired as a commander of the Peter J. Pitchess county jail in 1984, also expressed concern about the effect of closing the Newhall office.

“It will affect the quality of justice out here,” Pederson said. “My concern is people out here won’t have access to the D.A.”