In a Novel Move, Judge Decides to Import Jury

It was a novel solution to a sticky problem for the court: Import a jury from a neighboring county rather than move the whole court out when a change of venue was needed.

The decision by Ventura Superior Court Judge Frederick A. Jones to bring in a Santa Barbara County jury for the Diana Haun trial proved to be more than just innovative.

It was cheap.

Busing 18 jurors from Santa Barbara to Ventura for 38 court days cost the county about $18,500--significantly less than if the case had been moved to another jurisdiction, court officials said last week.

Consider the $250,000 in court-related costs that Los Angeles County spent when the Rodney G. King beating case against four Los Angeles police officers was moved to Simi Valley five years ago.

Or the $687,000 that Sonoma County spent last year to move the trial of Polly Klaas’ killer, Richard Allen Davis, to Santa Clara County.

“There are a lot more costs involved when you move a case,” said Vince Ordonez, assistant executive officer for the Ventura County Superior and Municipal courts.

If the Haun trial had been relocated to another site, Ordonez said, the county would have had to pay for security, lodging and transportation for the judge, lawyers and court staff.

But by busing in jurors from Santa Barbara each morning and sending them home again in the evening, Ordonez said the judge may have saved county taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars.

“A change of venue could have been anyplace,” he said. “It certainly would have been more.”

And the jurors had no complaints about the bus ride down the coast each morning, reading or watching dolphins frolic in the Pacific Ocean as they headed to Ventura for the sensational trial.

Haun, convicted of killing her lover’s wife, was sentenced to life in prison by a jury last month. Her trial spanned three months, with six weeks of trial and, after a short break, a week of testimony in the penalty phase.

Heavy pretrial publicity surrounding the kidnapping and slaying of Ventura homemaker Sherri Dally prompted defense attorneys to seek a venue change.

Lawyers argued that potential jurors in Ventura County had become so tainted by media coverage that it would be impossible for Haun and her co-defendant, Michael Dally, to get a fair trial.

But instead of sending the trial elsewhere, Jones used a rarely applied legal statute that says judges should consider bringing in an outside jury before transferring a case.

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In an agreement with prosecutors and defense lawyers, Jones decided to bus Haun’s jury 30 miles south each day from neighboring Santa Barbara County, where media coverage had been minimal.

Lawyers agreed that bringing in an outside group would reduce the burden on witnesses while still guarding the defendant’s fair trial rights.

The same procedure is expected to be followed for Dally’s upcoming trial, which Jones decided should be held separately from Haun’s.

Although it is allowed by statute, legal experts said importing a jury is rarely done. Officials with the Administrative Office of the Courts in San Francisco could not cite a single case in which a jury was bused in from another area, but said they did not think such a move was unprecedented.

“I don’t know of any,” said Laurie Levenson, associate dean of the Loyola University Law School. “Frankly, there are not that many changes of venue granted per year in California.”

If it were simply a matter of money, Levenson said more judges would probably decide to import juries because it is easier to move 12 or 18 people than relocating an entire trial.

But in many high-profile cases in which venue change motions are sought, pretrial publicity saturates an entire region, making it difficult to find jurors in any setting.

And, Levenson said, “you still have that nagging issue of: Are you getting representation by the community that was affected by the crime? I think logistically, it is not so easy.”

When jury selection in the Haun case began last summer, Jones warned prospective jurors of the awesome burden that awaited them if chosen to serve on the panel.

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“We all know this is going to be an inconvenience for you,” Jones said. “What I propose for you is to make that travel as easy as possible.”

Jurors who served on the case said the judge kept his word.

“He did everything he could to accommodate us,” said juror James Brock, 37, a systems analyst for the Santa Barbara Municipal Court.

Jones reserved a jury assembly room--complete with a refrigerator--so the 12 jurors and six alternates could leave their belongings and lunches for the day.

When they complained about the small van shuttling them back and forth the first day of trial, the judge immediately made arrangements for a larger 40-passenger bus, jurors said.

“He just bent over backward,” said juror Bert Walker, 74, a tile store owner.

“I was really starting to enjoy that trip,” said Walker, explaining that he enjoyed watching dolphins from the bus window. “It was really quite nice.”

The bus trip--which cost the county $292.50 a day--enabled jurors to talk, read and unwind from the day’s testimony, jurors said. And it saved them from having to fight traffic.

“We didn’t have to drive ourselves,” said jury foreman Noel Langle. “We just showed up, parked, hopped on a bus and drove down there.” It remains to be seen whether the jury for Michael Dally’s trial will have the same reaction. The transportation costs are expected to be the same, Ordonez said.