Simi Courthouse Makes a Stronger Case for Itself

It lacks a law library and attorneys’ conference rooms, and it has only two full-time judges. But after 11 years, Ventura County’s Simi Valley courthouse has become an increasingly important part of the local legal system.

The East County Courthouse has played host this year to nearly one-third of the county’s civil trials, as well as a significant share of its divorce, child custody, traffic, small claims and eviction cases.

Twice as many kids pass through the on-site “children’s waiting room” than three years ago, while family law mediators in June moved from a part-time to full-time schedule to handle increased demand, according to courthouse managers.

“I think there is a consensus that it is desirable to continue to have a courthouse in the east end of the county,” said Superior Court Judge Thomas J. Hutchins, who is assigned to the courthouse full time with Judge Kent M. Kellegrew.

Court commissioners Manuel J. Covarrubias and Gary K. Barrett also work there four days a week, hearing family law, traffic, eviction and small claims matters involving less than $25,000.

“The courtrooms are filled with judicial officers, so from a judicial point of view, the facility is at full use,” Hutchins said.

But design and money problems have kept the courthouse in the Simi Valley Civic Center on Alamo Street from developing into the full-service operation that government officials had envisioned when it opened.

To cut costs, the $11-million, 76,800-square-foot building was modeled on a county office building and then adapted as a courthouse. As a result, a post blocks the view from the bench in one of the five courtrooms, leaving it unusable for trials.

No Felony Trials Since King Case

Because of the building’s limitations and the cost of getting defendants, detectives and others from Ventura to Simi Valley, no felony trials have been held at the courthouse since the first Rodney King beating case in 1992, said Alice Lopez, an assistant courts administrator who spent three years overseeing services at the Superior Court.

“We’ve always left open that possibility, but it wasn’t designed for criminal cases,” Lopez said, noting the courthouse has neither a secure holding facility for defendants in custody nor a cafeteria for feeding inmates and sequestered jurors.

And the district attorney pulled out of the courthouse late last year because of cost concerns and concerns that the prosecutors’ second-floor space lacked a rear entrance.

“They handle a lot of emotional cases and they wanted a way to get out if they needed to,” said Supervisor Judy Mikels, who has an office in the courthouse.

Mikels is thinking about relocating to Simi Valley City Hall because she fears that the metal detectors and X-ray machines installed last year to improve security might discourage constituents from visiting her. “I feel uncomfortable asking them to go through that screening just to come see me,” she said.

Mikels added, however, that the courthouse, which was constructed at the urging of former Ventura County Supervisor Jim Dougherty and other Simi Valley officials, is important because it spares residents who live east of the Conejo Grade the inconvenience of traveling to Ventura for matters such as paying traffic fines and filing adoption papers.

Nearly a decade after a Ventura County jury acquitted four white police officers in the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King, it can be difficult to recall all that this generic, sand-colored structure came to symbolize in the court of public opinion. If the corner of Florence and Normandie in Los Angeles was ground zero for the rioting that followed the jury’s verdicts, the East County Courthouse, where the trial took place, was the launching site.

In some circles, the conservative community that is home to a disproportionate number of police officers became a symbol for racism.

Less than a year later, however, the courthouse was back to what it had been before the King case--a structure so underutilized that only two of its courtrooms were used regularly and many of the upstairs offices stood vacant.

Agencies Establishing Satellite Operations

To fill the space, county human services agencies began establishing satellite operations in the courthouse in late 1993.

Other government agencies soon followed, including the Division of Building and Safety and the Simi Children’s Mental Health Center.

It wasn’t until late 1995 that the two Superior Court judges arrived, bringing with them the ability to hear civil cases and giving the East County Courthouse the chance to prove its worth.

“It serves the attorneys of Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley well,” said Bruce Finck, a Ventura lawyer who was in Simi Valley recently for a civil jury trial. “It’s a make-do courthouse from an architectural standpoint, but there are ones lots worse in California.”

Although a hot dog vendor who set up business outside the courthouse last year has helped make up for the lack of a cafeteria, east county residents must still make the drive to Ventura to apply for a wedding license or a birth certificate because the county recorder’s office has not set up shop in Simi Valley.

In the absence of prosecutors, residents seeking emergency protective orders in domestic violence cases have no one there most days to help them fill out paperwork, courthouse manager Tonna Siela said. And without a full-time custodial or maintenance staff, one of the courtrooms once was evacuated for four hours after someone vomited inside and a cleaning crew had to be sent from Ventura.

According to Hutchins, the inability to try criminal cases at the courthouse is “the most singular drawback, from the point of view of public service.”

While there are no immediate plans to change that, the situation will probably be remedied at some point, he said.

In the meantime, the courthouse staff is working to alleviate one of the geographic snags that have annoyed east county residents who have been instructed to show up at the Hall of Justice for jury duty, only to be assigned to a jury pool in Simi Valley. Starting soon, the East County Courthouse will be used to sign in and train prospective jurors, Siela said.

Siela said that while the Simi courthouse has been less of a target for vandals or graffiti artists than the Hall of Justice, visitors sometimes come by asking “to see the Rodney King courtroom.”

“I think they are really disappointed that it looks like all the other courtrooms,” she said.