Orange County Municipal Courts

John Eric Phelps, who is accused of crashing a stolen Mercedes into another car Monday and critically injuring a 7-year-old boy, has been cited at least six times for driving with a suspended license and has been in at least two other crashes, according to court and Department of Motor Vehicle records.

The red-tiled Newhall Municipal Court in suburban Valencia is the sort of quiet place where speeders sheepishly go to pay penance and where condo complexes go to trial over a gardening bill. It's an unlikely venue for the latest skirmish over the public's right to an open courthouse, a test triggered by the success of the emerging victims' rights movement.

Two Stanton boys, 15 and 17, stood in line at the traffic window at West Municipal Court in Westminster last week trying to pay a fine after police caught them drinking beer in their car. It took them an hour to get to the window. There, they learned they could not pay the fine and would have to come back a second time just to get a date to appear in court.

The red-tiled Newhall Municipal Court in suburban Valencia is the sort of quiet place where speeders sheepishly come to pay penance and condominium owners go to trial over the gardening bill. It's an unlikely venue for the latest skirmish over the public's right to an open courthouse, a test triggered by an unforeseen consequence of the ballot success spawned by the emerging victims' rights movement.

One morning three years ago Steven Evangelisti and several young friends drove down to Rosarito Beach for the day. As do many visitors to Baja, they drank. And drank. And that night on their way home, the driver of the car Evangelisti was riding in crashed into the center divider on the San Diego Freeway. Evangelisti, riding in the passenger seat, slammed into the windshield. Today, Evangelisti spends his days--and nights--lying in a bed at Western Neuro Care Center in Tustin.

Like everyone else who votes or carries a driver's license, Municipal Judge Richard W. Stanford Jr.'s number came up Monday. The Orange County judge was called for jury duty. It was a first for Stanford, who has heard hundreds of cases argued in his 11 years on the bench, but had never served on a jury. To the judge's surprise, he was chosen to sit on a panel hearing a civil case involving a slip-and-fall injury during a tour in Mexico. The trial is expected to last until Thursday or Friday.

Each year, approximately 22,000 people are arrested for drunk driving in Orange County. Many of those convicted who go on probation are sent to any one of several local alcohol rehabilitation programs. These programs, which normally include some combination of group therapy, group discussion and education, are run by independent centers that contract with the county's courts (see below for a list of those centers).

Judicial elections are normally quiet and nondescript, but two vacancies on the Municipal Court bench, plus a challenge for a third seat, promise to make for lively contests in the June 2 election. Nine candidates are vying for the two vacant posts, while one incumbent Municipal Court judge is fending off a challenger who says he doesn't like the way the judge hands down sentences. In Harbor Municipal Court in Newport Beach, Judge Margaret R.

A judge overseeing one of Orange County's busiest municipal courts systematically prevented poor people from exercising their right to an attorney and ordered those seeking lawyers to return to jail for another week, according to court documents and a formal complaint against the judge. With the knowledge of his boss, Judge Claude E.