LOS ANGELES COUNTY : Court Rebuffs Judges’ Bid to Use Anonymous Juries

Two judges who are waging a legal fight to use anonymous juries in criminal trials lost the latest round this week when a state appeals court said they do not have the right to pursue the issue in court.

Philip K. Mautino and John David Lord, presiding judges of the Bellflower and Downey Municipal Courts, had asked the appeals court to overturn Superior Court rulings forbidding the use of anonymous juries in two cases. State law offers jurors anonymity once a trial is over, but Mautino and Lord believed that that protection is meaningless unless it is offered at the start. The public defender’s office contends that blanket anonymity biases trials by creating the impression that defendants are to be feared.

The 2nd District Court of Appeal had agreed to hear arguments Dec. 21, but on Wednesday it dismissed both cases in a brief written ruling. The court wrote that Municipal Courts lack the legal standing to challenge Superior Court decisions. The role of the court, the justices said, is as a neutral party, not an entity with a “beneficial interest” in the outcome of the case.

Principal Deputy County Counsel Daniel E. McCoy, who represents both judges, said he will ask the California Supreme Court to grant a hearing.