D.A. Assails Bid to Relocate Trials to Ease Crowding

Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas on Tuesday criticized a plan to switch all South County trials to Newport Beach, saying the move will inconvenience jurors, witnesses and attorneys, and might even interfere with cases.

Beginning next week, the county’s judges intend to move all jury trials from the overcrowded Laguna Niguel courthouse to the Harbor Justice Center to reduce the South Justice Center caseload.

But prosecutors fear that the proposal could clog the justice system, making jurors and witnesses late or preventing them from showing up at all because of the longer drive.

“That’s a big concern for us,” Rackauckas said. “Victims, witnesses, defendants and all of the parties involved in a case are going to have to start chasing cases around the county to handle it.”

The switch means that hundreds of South County jurors every year will face a trip from Laguna Niguel to Newport Beach--a journey prosecutors say can take 40 minutes during rush hour.

Last year, 59 misdemeanor and 14 felony trials were held in Laguna Niguel on charges ranging from petty theft to domestic violence, court officials said.

The plans are part of an effort to ease conditions at the aging South Justice Center, which has become overwhelmed in recent years as the South County population has exploded. As well as moving jury trials, court officials are shifting to Harbor Justice Center all cases from Aliso Viejo, Lake Forest, Laguna Woods and Newport Coast.

Presiding Judge C. Robert Jameson said he and other judges hope the decision to move trials north will have little impact on the justice system. But he said court officials had little choice but to make the change as a last-ditch effort to ease overcrowding.

The tiny Laguna Niguel courthouse is now so deluged with cases that some clerks work on stairwells. And the facility has fallen out of compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act.

“It’s terrible,” Jameson said. “We have a stack of violations for fire codes.”

Judges for years have complained that they need a new courthouse. But plans to build one have met objections from local officials worried that a new site would include a small jail to hold inmates awaiting hearings.

Jameson said he has talked with county officials in the last few weeks on how to resolve the issue. Despite renewed interest in the problem, Jameson said he is cautious about being optimistic. “I’m encouraged by the response we’re getting right now, but I have to be realistic,” he said.

Noting that he sympathized with the pressures facing judges in South County, Rackauckas nevertheless said he is concerned that prosecutors’ workload will increase because of the changes.

Although jury trials move north, other pretrial hearings and case filings will remain in Laguna Niguel. Deputy district attorneys assigned to the South County courthouse, Rackauckas said, can’t keep up with their workload if they have to try cases in Newport Beach. He said his office will need three to six extra prosecutors to handle the work.

“It’s a situation that I think reduces our service to the public,” Rackauckas said. “But . . . we’re not going to let cases fall through the cracks.”