Reduction in Jury Service Applauded : Courts: Many who served recently welcome the decision to trim the period to 5 days.

As Robert Brandel burst through the doors of Van Nuys Superior Court and into the afternoon sunshine, a wide smile split his face as he looked skyward and exulted: “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God, I’m free at last!”

Brandel, repeating a phrase from a spiritual made famous in a Martin Luther King Jr. speech, wasn’t a prisoner given his walking papers and his first taste of freedom. The 63-year-old Sun Valley resident was a member of a jury pool who had been excused from further service Thursday.

He had spent nine days twiddling his thumbs in the sweltering jury duty waiting room, making occasional trips into courtrooms only to be rejected for jury duty and sent back to kill more time.

Like most San Fernando Valley jurors and courthouse personnel interviewed last week, Brandel applauded the Superior Courts Executive Committee’s decision Tuesday to cut in half the amount of time to be served on jury duty in Superior and Municipal courts, from 10 days to five, starting in October. Jurors also will be released if a trial lasts fewer than five days. Under the existing plan, jurors must return to the waiting room when finished with one trial, to wait out the entire 10 days.

Also, the size of jury panels will be reduced; jurors for cases expected to last fewer than five days will be chosen from a panel of 25, rather than the current 45 or 50, court officials said. That change is expected to save the county at least $2.2 million a year in mileage and fees by cutting down on the number of jurors needed.

Many agreed with Brandel, saying the five-day maximum would prompt prosecutors, lawyers and judges to empanel juries more quickly and cut the time prospective jurors spend waiting. Most jurors interviewed also said the changes would improve the morale of those who sit and wait.

“It’s been tough, just sitting in that room for nine days,” Brandel said, blinking in the bright sun as other just-released jurors murmured their approval. “We can’t, the taxpayers can’t, afford the system the way it is now. It’s foolish.”

In making the changes, court officials said they hoped more companies might be inclined to let their employees take off time with pay to serve on juries, possibly increasing the racial and economic diversity of the jury pool. During the past five years, the number of employers willing to pay workers on jury duty has dropped 28%, forcing the jury system to excuse more prospective jurors--especially for trials that last more than 10 days. As a result, the jury pool has shrunk, court officials said.

Juror Robin Maisner also was released from jury duty at the end of her ninth day Thursday, after spending most of her time hanging out in the waiting room with hundreds of others.

“It was basically just a waste of my time, of everybody’s time, of my company’s time for paying me to be here,” said Maisner, a Continental Cablevision administrator. “I’m just one person. How many hundreds of thousands of others have had to sit there like that? And there’s no air conditioning.”

Maisner explained that like many others, she considers the 10-day minimum of jury duty to be cruel and unusual punishment, whether her company pays her wages or not. She said she finds a five-day maximum to be a lot more palatable, adding, “People won’t be so reluctant to serve a worthwhile cause.”

Last week, hundreds of prospective jurors sat in waiting rooms in Superior Court and Municipal Court jury waiting rooms across the Valley. In Van Nuys, some plopped themselves down on the purple and green couches in Superior Court and read, while others did puzzles.

A few talked enthusiastically about the changes. Others disagreed.

“There are a lot of problems yet to be addressed,” Rockwell scientist Al Thiele of Woodland Hills told his fellow potential jurors. “It’s been taking five days just to seat juries.”

V. J. Meloeny, a Woodland Hills homemaker, agreed, noting that jurors will serve five days, or on one trial, whichever is shorter. That means those jurors who don’t make it through jury selection and onto a panel by their third day “will be knocked out right away” because they’d never be able to hear an entire case.

Court statistics indicate that nearly 80% of all jury trials in Superior and Municipal courts in Los Angeles County are concluded in five days or less. But it often takes several days to question potential jurors to find the right ones and deal with the myriad complications of the jury system, prosecutors said.

Several prosecutors said the jury on the changes is still out.

“It’s almost impossible to try a felony in four days,” Deputy District Atty. Jeff Gootman told his fellow prosecutor, Leonard Shaffer, during an impromptu hallway discussion.

“Most felony cases can be tried in five days,” retorted Deputy District Atty. Shaffer. Most misdemeanor cases can be tried in less, he said. But the two men agreed that there are so many exceptions to the rule in both cases that only time will tell if the new system is an improvement.

Shaffer said he may be in a better position to comment at the end of next week--he’s currently on jury duty himself, and that is when his stint ends. The prosecutor--still wearing his jury badge while wandering the district attorney’s office--had so far spent his time being rejected for three Superior Court cases because of his legal background, and reading much of a 400-page novel. He has asked to be sent to the Municipal Court jury pool across the street, figuring his chances would be better there.

“All in all, I think jurors will be a lot happier,” Shaffer said. “But ask me at the end of this.”

Some, like George Gomez, took the philosophical approach to jury duty, saying it doesn’t really matter whether you spend 10 days fulfilling your civic duty, or five. “So it’s a week vacation instead of two,” said Gomez, a customer service representative for United Artists Cable Co. “At least you get paid.”