Judge Prevents D.A.’s Office From Destroying Old Files

Awarding defense lawyer groups a decisive first-round victory, a judge Thursday issued an injunction barring the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office from destroying thousands of old files.

Superior Court Judge Diane Wayne ruled that prosecutors have an “ethical and legal responsibility” to preserve the files they compile in prosecuting felony cases.

Prosecutors had said they believed they were entitled under law to destroy felony files more than 15 years old.

Wayne’s order sets the stage for a trial on the issue. It probably won’t be held for months, and in the meantime no files may legally be shredded.

The files at issue are solely those produced and maintained by the district attorney’s office. Superior Court records are not at risk.

The district attorney’s office files about 70,000 felony cases each year. It stores nearly 1 million files.

Storage costs for 1997 are estimated at $535,000, according to a statement filed in court by Michael Tranbarger, an assistant district attorney.

Not wanting to spend millions of dollars over the next few years to preserve yellowing legal briefs, senior prosecutors had asserted that the office had the legal authority to shred files more than 15 years old.

On Nov. 26, various defense lawyer groups filed suit, alleging that the destruction of any prosecution records would lead to incalculable harm.

Just one file might someday provide information that could clear someone wrongly convicted of a crime, according to the suit, filed by the 2,100-member defense lawyer organization California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, the 350-member Los Angeles Criminal Courts Bar Assn. and others.

In the opinion she issued Thursday, Wayne said it was of little merit that it will cost significant sums to store the files.