Metropolitan News-Enterprise

 

Monday, April 9, 2012

 

Page 1

 

Superior Court to Close Four Delinquency Courts

 

By a MetNews Staff Writer

 

Four juvenile delinquency courtrooms in Los Angeles County will be closed, Presiding Juvenile Court Judge Michael Nash confirmed Friday.

Nash told various county agencies, in an e-mail dated Thursday, that one courtroom each in Sylmar, Inglewood, Eastlake and Pomona delinquency courts would be closed as part of the Los Angeles Superior Court’s ongoing budget cuts.

No date has been set, the judge told the MetNews, but it will likely be around July 1, when the court’s new fiscal year begins. New assignments for some judicial officers now sitting in those courthouses will be made at a later date, Nash said.

Court records show that 13 judicial officers are assigned to the four courthouses.

In addition to the courtroom closings, the juvenile court will end its Informal Juvenile and Traffic Courts program. Those courts are presently located in Lannaster, Sylmar, Van Nuys, Pasadena, Pomona, Norwalk, Long Beach, Compton, Torrance, and Santa Monica, and at three locations in the Central District.

Nash explained that the court intends to move juvenile traffic infractions—about 12,000 of which were heard last year—to the adult traffic courts, while the remaining cases heard by the IJTCs—about 65,000, divided about equally between misdemeanors and infractions—will be heard in the delinquency courts.

The juvenile court cuts are a fraction of what the Superior Court is doing to close a projected deficit of $145.4 million for the next fiscal year. It announced last month that about 300 employees will lose their jobs and at least 50 courtrooms will be closed.

The court also said last week it would move limited jurisdiction civil cases—those involving $25,000 or less—out of the Pomona North Courthouse and have those cases heard in West Covina.

 

Copyright 2012, Metropolitan News Company