Inmates to Be Screened at Courts

Jailers using hand-held metal detectors will soon screen all dangerous prisoners as they enter courthouses in Los Angeles County, supervisors were told Tuesday.

Now most inmates are body-searched but are not required to pass metal detectors.

The security upgrade comes after a gang member on trial for double murder slashed his attorney in the arm last week with a razor blade he brought into a San Fernando courtroom.

“You learn from these kinds of incidents,” said Sheriff’s Chief Richard Martinez at a hearing on court security called by Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.

Deputies will also search courthouse lockups more thoroughly and on a daily basis, Martinez told supervisors.

An investigation shows that deputies had searched the defendant, Erick Morales, thoroughly -- even looking under his tongue. What they did not know was that Morales -- who had carried the razor from jail in his pocket -- hid it in the lockup facility just before deputies patted him down. Morales retrieved the metal shard before entering the courtroom.

For many years, metal detectors have been used at the county’s 52 courthouses to screen jurors, lawyers and members of the public.

Cecil Mills, the director of court security and a retired judge, told the board that deputies manning metal detectors and X-ray machines seized close to 73,000 knives in a recent one-year period. The court’s security program “is one that works well,” he said.

Martinez called the March 14 assault on Deputy Alternate Public Defender Linda Wieder “an isolated incident.”

In Los Angeles, lawyers have been punched, stabbed and assaulted in the courtroom.

Earlier this month in Atlanta, a rape defendant grabbed a bailiff’s gun and killed three people, including a judge.

“My somewhat cynical guess is, but for what happened in Atlanta, we wouldn’t have had that hearing today,” said David Carleton, chief deputy of the Alternate Public Defender’s Office, who attended the hearing. “Public defenders have been assaulted in courtrooms for 20 years,” according to Carleton, who said he was once was hit in the face by a client.

Deputies were wary of Morales trying to escape because he had cut his identifying wrist band on seven occasions and once switched bands with another inmate.

About a week before attacking Wieder, Morales repeatedly stood up while in court. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ronald Coen ordered that he be restrained by attaching him to the back of his chair, according to court transcripts. An additional deputy was assigned to the courtroom to monitor him.

On March 14, Morales arrived in San Fernando courthouse, shackled and chained around his leg and waist.

San Fernando is the only Los Angeles County courthouse with a metal detector for inmates. Morales did not go through the detector because his heavy shackles would have set off alarm bells, the Sheriff’s Department said.

Wieder returned to court two days later to finish representing Morales at trial. Last Thursday, the jury found him guilty of killing two other gang members.