2 Cities Oppose Shuffling Cases Between Courts

For years, Glendale residents traveled no farther than their downtown courthouse to testify against a drunk driver, serve on a jury or resolve a divorce. But that may change soon as court officials consider a proposal to move criminal and family-law cases from Glendale to Burbank and all civil matters from the two cities to Glendale.

Inadequate security and parking at the decrepit Glendale Courthouse, court leaders say, require moving high-security and high-volume cases to the newly renovated Burbank courthouse six miles away.

But officials in both cities oppose the idea. Burbank officials say it would bring more criminals to their city, and Glendale leaders say it would force officers to leave their city to consult prosecutors and testify, whereas now they just walk across the street.

More officers “will be removed from our city to stand by idly in foreign courtrooms,” Glendale Police Chief Russell K. Silverling wrote in an Aug. 22 letter to Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Carl J. West, who supervises the Burbank and Glendale courts. “Prisoner transportation to a distant lockup will cause further investments in equipment and staffing.”

Burbank City Council members say they are afraid their downtown will be transformed into a dumping ground for felons released from court onto city streets. Inmates are freed if they are acquitted at trial, released on their own recognizance, completed their sentences or had their charges dismissed.

“We don’t want a disproportionate share of criminal cases,” Burbank City Manager Robert R. “Bud” Ovrom said.

The city is considering issuing taxicab vouchers to released inmates to encourage them to leave downtown Burbank, Ovrom said. Twenty inmates were released from the Burbank courthouse last month, according to court data, and 15 were released in Glendale from Sept. 10-25. Most were for minor offenses, such as drug possession and driving with a suspended license.

Los Angeles County Superior Court judges are meeting with local authorities to try to work out a compromise, but the decision rests with the court, which is undergoing a massive restructuring. The biggest change so far has been the consolidation last year of Los Angeles County’s 24 separate municipal courts, including those in Glendale and Burbank, into a single countywide Superior Court. The move centralized decision making and removed nearly all city control over the former municipal courts.

The proposed changes in Glendale and Burbank fulfill a mandate by California voters who approved a ballot measure in 1998 that aimed to improve court efficiency by eliminating duplicate services.

“We are doing this to better serve the public [and] to make the best use of facilities that we have available,” West said.

Mary Fowler, a retiree who splits time between Burbank and Utah, said she likes the convenience of a local courthouse. “Why should I drive to Glendale?” she said.

Court officials want to move criminal cases to the Burbank Courthouse because it has a large, state-of-the-art lockup center and a new parking structure. They would close the Glendale lockup.

Glendale judges would handle civil and small-claims matters, West said, and both courts would adjudicate local traffic and most unlawful detainer and code enforcement cases.

Officials from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which provides courthouse security, have warned for years about the potential danger in holding inmates in the old Glendale Courthouse. Built in 1953, the two-story court building lacks adequate holding cells for defendants awaiting trial and secure pathways to move inmates inside the courthouse, sheriff’s officials said.

Inmates in Burbank never mix with the public. They are dropped off in an enclosed area and walk into a secure lockup that holds 125 inmates. They use a separate elevator and back hallway.

Another problem in Glendale is parking, which has become critical since the Los Angeles County Superior Court began a one-trial jury system that requires more jurors be called each day. With no public lot at the Glendale Courthouse, jurors have to leave their cars four blocks away and walk or take a city bus.

In Burbank, where a new five-level, $5-million parking structure stands, officials complain they are being penalized for making improvements.

“We feel we have been punished for doing a good deed,” Ovrom said.