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A Waiting Accident Happens

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A Times news story last month on Los Angeles County’s Downtown civil courthouse has turned out to be tragically prophetic.

The facility has no metal detectors, just five guards, poor camera coverage and 17 entrances. “You or I could sneak a bazooka into that courthouse without anyone knowing it. . . . Downtown courthouse is an accident waiting to happen,” attorney David Hoffman said then.

Today, Harry Zelig, a Woodland Hills physician, is to be arraigned on a charge of murder in the shooting of his ex-wife, Eileen, last Friday in that courthouse. The Zeligs were there to try to resolve one in a long line of disputes over their failed marriage.

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Ongoing county court budget problems have left the Downtown civil court with too little funding for proper security. On Tuesday the Board of Supervisors voted to assign the Sheriff’s Department to take over the job. Funding remains a problem.

In seeking a solution, authorities must apply the knowledge gained in recent years about domestic discord and abuse. These cases can deteriorate to the worst of outcomes--murder.

The case of Harry and Eileen Zelig should have been cause for concern. He had been arrested on charges of spousal abuse two years earlier. She had pleaded no contest to disturbing the peace. He had caused such worry in another judge that the court ordered Zelig to turn his pistol collection over to an attorney.

Contributing to the overall problem is the state “three-strikes” imprisonment law, which has resulted in more defendants demanding jury trials in felony cases. Now, nearly a third of the civil courthouse docket has been taken up with overflow criminal trials. This means that Los Angeles County is becoming increasingly like Orange County, where civil proceedings are held in the same buildings that house the criminal courts. But security there is better.

In Los Angeles, the solution demands more than just metal detectors. The Downtown courthouse is a security nightmare because it was never meant to be secure. It will take expert advice and a thorough study to make this building safer.

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