ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Prescription for Court Reform

In an unprecedented but warranted criticism of the bench, the Orange County Bar Assn. has blasted Santa Ana’s Municipal Court for its failure to guard the constitutional rights of indigent defendants. The bar’s recommendations are a valuable prescription for reform and a boost for the judicial system.

The bar investigated for 2 1/2 months and found a routine denial of due process in one of the county’s busiest courts. The inquiry was conducted in response to articles in The Times and to charges by the Orange County public defender’s office that Judge Claude Whitney and Presiding Judge James M. Brooks repeatedly denied rights to poor defendants to keep a high rate of guilty pleas. Whitney is now under investigation by the state Commission on Judicial Performance.

It is not every day that lawyers, who must appear before judges, are willing to fault them so publicly. The bar’s 30-member board of directors accepted the task force’s conclusions only after long deliberation. But the gesture sends an important message.

In addition to stating the obvious--that defendants’ rights must be protected and that poor defendants should have counsel--the bar has assembled a group of lawyers with the Hispanic Bar Assn. and the public defender’s office. They will provide free legal aid to those who believe rights were denied in Whitney’s court. That’s putting the bar behind a formal statement in a meaningful way.