EARTHQUAKE / THE LONG ROAD BACK : Wheels of Justice Turn--Slowly if Not Smoothly--as Courts Improvise

Instead of the harsh white lights that usually glare down on the master calendar court for misdemeanors at the Downtown Los Angeles Criminal Courts Building, that mini-arena of justice was bathed in soft rays more befitting a mood-drenched fern bar.

An ornate brass lamp with a tall, tilted shade sat near Municipal Judge Peter D. Lichtman as he issued bench warrants and took pleas Thursday. Four other lamps, shaded and unshaded, lit tables where a small army of defense lawyers and prosecutors shuffled through court files.

“This is weird, a little eerie and a little neat,” said Virgil Reevis, who was in court with his sister for her appearance in a theft case.

It was disaster adjustment--criminal justice style--as the massive courthouse on Temple Street reopened to the public for the first time since Monday’s earthquake.

But even as the Downtown facility reopened, others remained closed--including the Van Nuys courthouse, causing deliberations in the Menendez murder trial to be postponed again, at least until Monday.

Meanwhile, officials were assessing several other outlying courthouses, including one in San Fernando that sustained major structural damage in the quake. Robert M. Mallano, presiding judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court, said the building was so badly damaged that court personnel have not been allowed inside to retrieve files and computer data.

Mallano said no decision will be made about the fate of the building until detailed engineers’ reports are completed, probably by next week.

The San Fernando and Van Nuys courthouses--both in the San Fernando Valley, where the earthquake was centered--handle a quarter of the cases heard in Los Angeles County, officials said.

*

Courthouses also were closed in Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Newhall and Calabasas, for the most part because of asbestos in the air, Mallano said. Juvenile Courts in Eastlake and Sylmar were also closed but are expected to reopen next week, he said.

Mallano and Alban I. Niles, presiding judge of the county Municipal Court, said the earthquake had challenged but not halted the wheels of justice.

What could have been a crisis in the courts was also tempered, they said, by the extraordinary low number of arrests since the earthquake.

Cases that have to be heard--and had been assigned to courts that are now closed--are being moved to other courts.

“Frankly, I’m proud of most of the judges, who have done everything they could to help out,” Niles said.

To further relieve pressure on the court system, the state Legislature approved an emergency bill Thursday that allows jurists to delay arraignments up to seven days, bypassing a law that requires suspects to hear the formal charges against them within 48 hours.

Earlier in the week, Malcolm Lucas, chief judge of the California Supreme Court, declared a judicial emergency in Los Angeles County, allowing judges to postpone trials for up to 30 days.

The Downtown Criminal Courts Building was closed after the 6.6 temblor loosened ceiling tiles and caused flooding on some floors, requiring a cutoff of water and much of the power.

In places where electricity had not been restored in the 19-story building Thursday, some judges--including Lichtman--made do with lamps that looked like they had been commandeered from someone’s house.