Los Angeles County Courts

The building boom in Los Angeles county courts will continue paying off this year with the opening of a courthouse in the Antelope Valley and another in western San Fernando Valley. In 2001, residents across the county can also expect more community outreach and better service from the Los Angeles County Superior Court, a behemoth that is trying to reposition its sprawling branches as small, neighborhood-friendly courts, said James Bascue, the court's presiding judge.

The Newhall Land and Farming Co. has filed a motion in Los Angeles County Superior Court alleging that a judge presiding over its controversial development cases has a conflict of interest and asking that she disqualify herself. In the motion filed Thursday, attorneys for Newhall Land accuse Judge Ann I. Jones of failing to disclose her work with environmentalists in an effort to stop a property near her Santa Clarita Valley home from being divided. Among those environmentalists were Sierra Club members who also oppose Newhall Land's proposed community of 60,000 residents along a six-mile stretch of the Santa Clara River, about 35 miles north of Los Angeles and four miles from Jones' home.

Jury-summons scofflaws, be on notice. The penalty-free ride for ducking jury duty is over. Los Angeles County courts this week began enforcing a rule that the vast majority of county residents simply ignore: Serving on a jury is mandatory if you're eligible. Under a new, get-tougher policy, potential jurors who fail to respond to summonses will first face a hearing and then a $1,500 fine.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court commissioner who made "discourteous, undignified, gratuitous and denigrating remarks" during family law cases was publicly admonished Tuesday by a state agency overseeing judges' discipline. The Commission on Judicial Performance determined that Commissioner Alan H. Friedenthal should be "severely publicly admonished" for misconduct, including "humor at the expense of litigants," during five cases over which he presided from June 2007 to January 2009, according to an 18-page order made public Tuesday.

A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday barring criminal defendants from being forced to wear stun belts in Los Angeles County courts. The belts, concealed under the clothing of potentially unruly defendants, are activated by remote control, delivering 50,000 volts of low-amperage electricity. U.S.

Jury-summons scofflaws, be on notice. The penalty-free ride for ducking jury duty is over. Los Angeles County courts this week began enforcing a rule that the vast majority of county residents simply ignore: Serving on a jury is mandatory if you're eligible. Under a new, get-tougher policy, potential jurors who fail to respond to summonses will first face a hearing and then a $1,500 fine.

Although outraged cries of "foul" greeted a controversial California Supreme Court decision last June on the state's "three strikes and you're out" law, the sky has yet to fall. The high court ruled that the law permits judges to exercise some discretion in three-strikes cases in which imposing the mandated sentence would not be "in the furtherance of justice."

Frank Visco, a Lancaster developer who is also state Republican Party chairman, abruptly withdrew Monday from a proposed agreement with the city of Lancaster to acquire land for a new courthouse, after the proposal was attacked as unfair to other developers. Visco blamed Lancaster Councilman George Theophanis, a political rival, for orchestrating opposition to the project. Under the proposal, the Lancaster Redevelopment Agency--which has the same members as the City Council--would have loaned Visco $1.5 million.

Where there's a will--or a serious public clamor--there's a way. Los Angeles County Superior Court officials, reversing themselves, have now vowed to adopt a system requiring most prospective jurors to serve only one day unless they are selected for a trial. Under the one-day-or-one-trial model, jurors not assigned to a trial on their first day of service will be excused.

On the verge of dismissing the murder case against mortician David Wayne Sconce, a Ventura County Superior Court judge summoned Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury to testify Wednesday about Los Angeles County prosecutors' role in the case. Bradbury, before Judge Frederick A. Jones, said he made the decision to charge Sconce with murder, then swore in two Los Angeles County deputy district attorneys as special prosecutors and turned over all authority in the case to Los Angeles Dist. Atty.

Judge Michael Nash, who presides over the Los Angeles County Juvenile Court, has long argued that public access to the court's proceedings would improve its accountability and the accountability of those who appear before it. Last week, he set out to prove it. Nash, along with this page, had supported state legislation that would change the presumption that dependency court hearings, in which the fate of children in foster care is decided, should...

The owner of a Honda Civic hybrid won an unusual Small Claims Court lawsuit Wednesday against the auto giant that some legal experts believe could change strategies for both Small Claims Court and class-action litigation. A Los Angeles County court commissioner ruled that American Honda Motor Co. negligently misled Civic owner Heather Peters when it claimed the hybrid could achieve as much as 50 miles per gallon. Court Commissioner Douglas Carnahan, who mailed his 26-page decision to Peters and Honda, awarded her $9,867.19 in damages.

In 2005, Deborah Kincaid called her estranged husband for an uncomfortable conversation. With the police listening in, she accused Jeffrey Kincaid of sexually abusing her daughter, Shannon, who was 11 when the couple married. When she asked why he had abused the girl, he said he didn't remember the abuse but continued on an enigmatic aside. "I don't know. I don't remember," he said. "You may be right. I'm beginning to believe that you're right. I — I can't make sense of it. " This week, an appellate court ruled that Kincaid could sue her ex-husband in civil court for allegedly causing her daughter's eventual death by suicide, based on recorded conversations between the couple and between Jeffrey Kincaid and his stepdaughter.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge has ordered the city of Burbank to release data on bonuses paid to individual employees, saying the taxpayers' right to know exceeded any workplace privacy concerns. Superior Court Judge Ann I. Jones ruled Friday in a lawsuit filed by the Burbank Leader after city officials refused to make individual bonuses public. Jones cited legal precedent, telling the parties that previous court rulings "basically said, 'Man up, public employees.

Michael Jackson's personal physician declared himself "innocent" in the singer's death Tuesday during a Los Angeles County Superior Court appearance in which he also demanded that his trial begin quickly. Asked how he pleaded to a charge of involuntary manslaughter, the sole count to be decided at the trial now set for March 28, Dr. Conrad Murray paused and then said, "Your honor, I am an innocent man ? " "What's your plea?" Judge Michael Pastor interrupted. "Therefore, I plead not guilty," Murray said.

There are judicial decisions you can ponder, others over which you argue, and some that just leave you shaking your head in slack-jawed wonder. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Hilleri G. Merritt's imposition of a prior restraint order on The Times falls squarely into the latter category. With the judge's permission, one of the paper's photographers shot pictures of a defendant charged with killing four people. Merritt then changed her mind and ordered the paper not to publish the images, despite the fact that the accused man's photo already has appeared on television and been posted on the Internet.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you have heard both sides of the case. And now the judge will instruct you on the law governing your deliberations. One of the many things the judge says is: Innocent misrecollection is not uncommon. But suppose the judge uses plain English instead of that mind-twisting triple-negative. Suppose she says: People sometimes honestly forget things.

Serge Mergelian, a trilingual native of the former Soviet Union who works as an interpreter in Los Angeles County criminal courts, takes almost three seconds to say in Armenian the equivalent of "public defender." Likewise, "arraignment" has no Russian counterpart, and to get the idea across he defines the term as "the initial appearance in court at which the defendant is told the charges." Coming up with stand-ins for U.S. legalese isn't half of the interpreter's art, to hear him tell it.

Former Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn's stint as a private citizen lasted all of about three years. On Wednesday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed him and 16 others to L.A. County Superior Court judgeships. "I miss public service," said Hahn, 58, who said he entered public life 33 years ago as a deputy city attorney. That doesn't include all the years he learned about public service from his father, longtime L.A. County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn. His sister, L.A.

Using a computerized lottery system, Los Angeles County this week chose its first civil grand jury. The 23 grand jurors and four alternates were chosen Wednesday in Superior Court, said Kyle Christopherson, a court spokesman. Because existing grand juries focused far more on criminal indictments than civil investigations, the county decided last year to split criminal and civil grand juries. Civil grand jurors will serve from July 1 to June 30, 2002, Christopherson said.