Family Abuse Court Closure Draws Protest

The closure of Los Angeles County’s first courtroom reserved for domestic violence cases sparked a protest Tuesday at the West Covina courthouse, with demonstrators calling the decision regressive and outrageous.

More than 40 members of organizations that help victims of domestic abuse rallied outside Citrus Municipal Court, demanding the reinstatement of the groundbreaking courtroom.

After four years of award-winning work, the Citrus judges decided last month to disband the domestic violence court, dispersing the cases among eight judges at the courthouse.

“Why change something that saves lives,” Denise Brown of the Nicole Brown Charitable Foundation told the crowd.

The courtroom has been heralded by the county grand jury as a model of consistent sentencing and excellent probation follow-up. Its founder, Superior Court Judge Dan Oki, was honored by the Judicial Council of California.

“It is the continuity with one judge that is the secret to this courtroom,” said Darby Margene, president of the San Gabriel Valley chapter of the National Organization for Women.

Nonetheless, the judges say the growing caseload in other Citrus courtrooms justifies the change. The domestic violence court handled 74 new cases a month compared with 176 new cases for each of the other courtrooms, according to the judges.

“Instead of one specially trained judge to handle domestic violence, we now have eight specially trained and committed judges,” the judges said in a statement.

Sources familiar with the court said the change came after some judges complained that they were forced to handle more cases than Judge Mark Nelson, who presided over the domestic violence court.

Victims rights advocates at the rally said they were especially infuriated by a comment that Presiding Judge Rolf M. Treu made to a local paper. Treu was quoted as saying: “Drunken driving cases cause far greater disruption than domestic violence.”

Barbara Rehmer, executive director of YWCA-WINGS, a local shelter, said, “Drunk driving is serious, but it is ludicrous to compare it to domestic violence. . . . It is this insensitivity that leads us here today.”

Treu defended his statement Tuesday.

“While not denigrating the toll domestic violence causes, drunk driving causes far greater disruption to our society as a whole than do domestic violence cases,” he said.

He said a revamped system in which domestic violence cases are spread among all the judges will be more consistent. Treu said that when the domestic violence court judge was absent, cases had to be heard by other judges.

Treu also noted that Los Angeles Municipal Court has not set aside a courtroom for domestic violence cases. Such courtrooms have been implemented in Pasadena, Long Beach and El Monte, as well as at 16 other courthouses statewide.

Presiding Judge Peter J. Meeka of Rio Hondo Municipal Court in El Monte, who handles half of domestic violence cases at his courthouse, said he disagrees with the Citrus decision.

“‘Everything I heard, Judge Mark Nelson was doing a very good job,” he said.

Meeka, who travels across the state in support of domestic violence courts, said such cases are best handled by specialized judges.

“They are extremely difficult cases,” he said. “You will work harder on 10 domestic violence misdemeanors than 20 regular cases.”