Judge Bars Pilot Program to Save Police Overtime Costs

A pilot program that has saved at least $325,280 in overtime costs for Los Angeles police officers is about to be scrapped by a new speedy trial plan at the Criminal Courts Building.

The district attorney’s office saved the city the overtime costs by calling police officers to court on or near the day a particular officer would actually be required to testify as a witness in a criminal case.

Launched in April, the pilot program marked a decided switch from the usual courthouse practice--under which officers are summoned the first day a case technically is due to go to trial. But cases routinely get continued. Sometimes, courtrooms aren’t available. Meanwhile, according to police, overtime ticks away at about $40 per hour.

Endorsed by Mayor Richard Riordan, the pilot project was a key to a nine-point plan that, according to a report issued in December by a blue-ribbon task force, could save as much as $10.8 million annually in overtime costs for police officers who are called as witnesses in court.

But, for complex reasons that stem from highly technical rules of state criminal procedure, the pilot program will be suspended when the speedy trial plan goes into effect Monday at the downtown courthouse. The money-saving program had been due to be expanded countywide, Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter Berman said.

Noelia Rodriguez, the mayor’s spokeswoman, said Friday that the situation was baffling: “Here’s something that works, that saves money, that puts police officers on the street. And it’s going to be cut. That doesn’t add up.”

Superior Court Judge James Bascue said he recognizes that the savings in overtime costs have been significant, that projections are for more money to be saved and that “both the city and the county are in a fiscal crisis.”

Bascue, the supervising judge at the Criminal Courts Building who is pushing the new plan, said: “I have a higher obligation to follow the law.”

John Reid, another Superior Court judge who has been heavily involved in implementing the speedy trial plan, predicted that it ultimately will save taxpayers significant sums.

“Under this program, everyone’s going to know when [a case] is going to trial,” Reid said. “And they’re not going to languish at all.”

State law requires that all criminal cases in Superior Court go to trial by the 60th day after a defendant is first arraigned, meaning formally charged with a crime.

In practice, however, it seldom works that way. Lawyers have other cases already in trial, a case is not yet fully investigated or there are too many cases in the pipeline.

Often, a case reaches Day 60 without proceeding to trial. At that point, a 10-day grace period kicks in.

Many cases are continued beyond Day 60 or Day 70--assuming the defendant agrees to the continuance.

Traditionally, prosecutors have subpoenaed police officers to come to court on the day the case is first called for trial: Day 60.

As the 10-day grace period runs, so do the overtime costs.

Last April, using three courtrooms on the 15th floor of the Criminal Courts Building as an experiment, prosecutors began subpoenaing officers on Day 63. Overtime savings for that month: $15,466.

In August, the pilot program expanded to 10 courtrooms.

Later, prosecutors pushed the subpoenas back to Day 66 or 67. Savings through January amounted to $325,280.

Berman, the deputy who oversees trials on the 15th floor, called the pilot program a “real reform in terms of saving money and putting police officers back on the street.”

Bascue and other judges, meanwhile, have made it known since late last year that their priorities included reforms to slash the backlog of criminal cases awaiting trial.

Largely because of a glut of “three-strikes” cases, the number of cases pending past Day 60 at the Criminal Courts Building jumped from 1,726 in January, 1995, to 2,111 this past January, according to Superior Court statistics.

That’s a 22% hike. It also represents a whopping 68% of the full caseload, 3,105 cases.

In a memo dated March 6, Bascue informed prosecutors and defense attorneys that state law had to be “strictly enforced.”

As of March 18, he said, trials will be set for Day 50--and would begin either that day or on Day 51.

If the speedy trial plan works, Reid said, overtime savings will be significant. Officers can plan to be in court on Day 50 or 51.

Reid asserted Friday that the speedy trial plan will work, saying, “We will use available courts in outlying districts, if necessary.”

What needs changing, he said, is the view among many lawyers that delay is acceptable, even desirable.

Lawyers should simply follow the law, he said: “This is the date. Get ready. ‘Cause this is when we’re gonna do it.”

Such an approach, Berman said, leaves prosecutors no choice but to call police officers to court on Day 50--even if they have to wait on courthouse benches until Day 60.

It simply seems unrealistic, he said, to expect cases to go to trial that quickly.

Firearms and blood tests, for instance, often just don’t get done that fast, Berman said.

“Judges, prosecutors and defense atorneys have an obligation to see that cases are investigated thoroughly so that there can be a fair trial,” even if that means some delay, he said.

He added of the speedy trial plan: “The goals they’re trying to achieve are valid.” But he said: “I’m really concerned that we’re throwing away a very good program.”