Judge OKs Effort to Get Minorities on Grand Jury

Hoping to attract more minorities to the county’s grand jury, the presiding judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court, Victor E. Chavez, said Wednesday that he will extend the nominating process to May 5.

The lack of Latino representation on the grand jury has attracted much criticism.

During the past few weeks, two criminal defense attorneys, in separate cases, challenged their clients’ grand jury indictments. The attorneys, Charles L. Lindner and Victor Sherman, have contended that the selection process excluded Latinos. This exclusion, they said, is discriminatory and violates their clients’ constitutional right to due process and equal protection.

Chavez said he was going to issue the deadline earlier in the week, but made the decision to extend it “to make certain we have a representative group.”

“My decision has nothing to do with any case that’s pending,” he said. “I decided that we could profit from a little more time.”

Not a single Latino serves on the current panel of 23 grand jurors and four alternates, and only eight people with Latino surnames were among the 122 prospects for next year’s grand jury.

Latinos make up about 40% of the population of Los Angeles County, and 28% of the eligible trial jurors. But they have never accounted for more than 8% of the grand jury pool.

“In the past few days, I’ve sent more than 100 letters seeking nominations to organizations composed of retired people, to various ethnic bar association and bar associations in different locations. . . . This is not a new concern. We’ve done outreach in the past,” Chavez said.