Don’t Blame Just the Judges

Lawrence Middleton may have died because local judges and prosecutors were playing chicken with one another last spring. Now, two veteran Los Angeles Superior Court judges face a nasty reelection battle, and everyone involved is learning a hard lesson about what happens when strapped budgets tempt public officials to score points instead of cooperate.

Middleton, a South Los Angeles barber and father, was shot to death in broad daylight June 26. Police arrested Jerrell Patrick, a member of the Rollin’ 60s Crips, in connection with the slaying. Patrick had been in police custody in May, charged with armed carjacking, but police had to release him because he wasn’t arraigned for that crime within 48 hours of his arrest, as the law requires.

Why he wasn’t arraigned is still a matter for much debate and remorse in the judges’ lunchroom and the district attorney’s office. The short answer is that budget and egos got in the way of problem-solving.

Superior Court judges have long complained that prosecutors wait until the last hour to file arraignment forms, causing judges and their staff to work long past their 4:30 p.m. closing time. The problem is acute after a holiday weekend. Making matters worse, the courts’ overtime funds are dwindling in light of Sacramento’s fiscal crisis.

That’s why Judges David Wesley and Dan Oki, the current and former supervising judges of the criminal court, repeatedly met last spring with prosecutors, public defenders and police to get suspects arraigned earlier in the day. All sides agreed they’d made progress. But on May 28, the Wednesday after Memorial Day, Oki and Wesley saw a caseload of more than 100 suspects and abruptly imposed the 4:30 deadline.

As a result, when prosecutors produced Patrick and several others after 4:30, the presiding commissioner refused to arraign them, leaving police no choice but to release them. Officers could have rearrested Patrick on an outstanding traffic warrant, and it bears asking why they didn’t. Instead, the commissioner ordered Patrick to reappear the next morning for arraignment. But Patrick wasn’t inside a courtroom again until September, to face charges in Middleton’s murder. After the May 28 debacle, court officials and other agencies’ representatives quietly ironed out new procedures. The court now opens a second arraignment court after holidays to handle the workload, and judges work later when necessary. The district attorney’s office has staff working on weekends to get documents filed earlier.

Oki and Wesley, however, now will face several opponents each when they run for reelection in March. The prosecutors gunning for their seats may try to portray Middleton’s death as entirely the judges’ fault. It wasn’t. With the state budget crisis still unresolved, this experience is a grim cautionary tale, not a story with heroes and villains.