Judges, Lawyers Spurn Costly Fortified Courts

Two Van Nuys courtrooms converted to high-tech fortresses at a cost of $140,000 for trials involving potentially violent defendants or spectators have seldom been used for that purpose, partly because judges and lawyers dislike the oppressive atmosphere they create.

Instead, a steady stream of traffic scofflaws, evicted tenants and compliant crooks have argued their cases there--protected by the best bullet-resistant glass and high-security doors that money can buy.

The situation has dismayed some law enforcement officials, who feel the high-security courtrooms are being wasted on low-risk cases. Their concerns come at a time when Los Angeles County officials are weighing whether to install similar hardware in a new courthouse near Los Angeles Airport.

The fortified courtrooms contain a 9-foot-high, bullet-resistant glass wall where a low wooden railing would normally separate spectators from court officials, and a small booth, where a potentially violent defendant can be isolated yet still observe the trial.

In theory, anyone going from the spectator area to the front of the court must be buzzed through doors electronically controlled by a bailiff.

In reality, most judges find the glass barrier so onerous they keep the doors propped wide open, rendering the security feature useless.

“It’s a shame that they went to that expense for those courtrooms and then don’t use them,” said Lt. Dave Long, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s head of security for the Van Nuys, Burbank and Glendale courthouses. “Lots of times, judges just don’t want to be inconvenienced.”

But Van Nuys judges said they shun the courtrooms only because they were so poorly designed that they don’t offer the security promised.

“They call it a high-security courtroom, but it’s especially insecure,” said Robert Letteau, supervising judge of the Van Nuys Superior Court, referring to the cramped quarters at the front of the courtroom that place defendants closer to jurors than they normally would be. “I’m sorry the county put the money into it.”

Defense attorneys agree, although for different reasons.

“It’s an extremely oppressive atmosphere that can only work to the client’s detriment,” because it suggests a defendant is dangerous, said Norman Koplof, head of the Van Nuys public defender’s office.

Well aware of the judges’ criticisms, county officials would like to outfit the new courthouse near the airport with removable glass panels instead of a permanent glass wall between the audience and the litigants.

The same option was considered and rejected as too costly when the Van Nuys courtrooms were built in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The panels would have added as much as $21,000 to the price of each $70,000 courtroom, said the architect who designed the Van Nuys Municipal Courthouse.

“There is no question it’s a better way to do it, but it’s a question of cost,” said Rob Quist, deputy court administrator for the Administratively Unified Courts, which includes Van Nuys and some other formerly independent judicial districts.

The first high-security courtroom in Van Nuys Municipal Court opened in 1989, one year after a man attempted to take a prosecutor hostage there and was killed in a shootout.

Judges, who have the final say over courtroom assignments, were encouraged to use the special room on an as-needed basis in cases involving gangs or other hostile parties, especially if threats had been exchanged.

Instead, the court has been used primarily for traffic matters and other low-risk cases.

One reason is that there are actually very few high-risk cases, but plenty of other pressing matters that need courtroom space, court officials said. The shortage of courtrooms has been particularly acute since the San Fernando Courthouse was condemned after the Northridge earthquake and more than a dozen judges were transferred to Van Nuys.

But instead of being assigned to judges hearing criminal matters, the high-security court is so unpopular that it was recently assigned to a San Fernando commissioner who mainly hears eviction matters, officials said.

Also, judges and attorneys believe they receive enough protection from metal detectors placed at the entrance to the courthouse after the 1988 shooting. But Sheriff’s Lt. Long warned that no courthouse is completely secure and that irate spectators in Compton and other parts of the state have leaped over wooden railings and beaten court officials with their fists.

Sgt. Richard Tinsley, the supervisor in charge of security for the Van Nuys Municipal Court, said he has advised judges to use the high-security courtroom in at least four potentially violent criminal cases during the past two years. Much to his chagrin, the judges turned him down and instead relied on extra bailiffs, who had to be pulled off other assignments, he said.

“Luckily, nothing has happened to prove us right about the need to use these courtrooms--so far,” Tinsley said.

Van Nuys Municipal Judge Michael Luros is one of the magistrates who rejected Tinsley’s advice and, in a normal courtroom, presided over a monthlong preliminary hearing involving three potentially violent gang members earlier this year. The defense attorneys in the case also opposed moving to the high-security courtroom, he said.

“It creates a very, very negative impression. It makes the jury feel like they’re in jail too, and I believe it frustrates case settlement because the defendant also feels like he is already in prison,” Luros said. “Most of the judges don’t like it for the very same reasons.”

But other court officials compared the high-security features to an insurance policy that is seldom if ever used, but still valuable to have.

“Is it overkill? I don’t think so,” said Jessica Perrin Silvers, the former city attorney taken hostage in the 1988 incident, who is now supervising judge of the Van Nuys Municipal Court. “It’s obviously much more intimidating than the usual courtroom setting. But you never know on any given day if there will be threats against witnesses and the need will arise.”

In Van Nuys Superior Court, some bailiffs--who are responsible for courthouse security--are upset that civil cases are being heard in the high-security courtroom when judges from San Fernando are hearing criminal matters in less secure courts that lack holding cells.

“There is a solution,” said one bailiff, who asked not to be identified. “Just flip-flop the courts.”

The high-security courtroom in Superior Court opened in late 1991 and has been used by two judges, both of whom said they found it inconvenient. Judge Michael Hoff, who presided over criminal cases there during 1992, said that until he had another entrance installed jurors had to go through seven doors to get to the jury box.

Judge Bert Glennon, who has been assigned to the court for the past 13 months, heard criminal cases there until six months ago, when he began presiding mostly over civil cases in the high-security courtroom. He stills hears an occasional criminal trial, but finds the glass wall so oppressive that he always props open the doors.

“I keep them open and I have since the day I got here,” Glennon said. “I’ve just never had the need to fully utilize the courtroom.”

Times special correspondent Thom Mrozek contributed to this story.