Court logjam forces 8 felony dismissals

In August, the state sent an emergency team of judges to help clear the overburdened courts in Riverside County.

Despite the reinforcements, the problem came to a head this week when the court dismissed eight felony cases because no judges were available.

In each case, the time limits guaranteeing defendants’ rights to a speedy trial had expired. The presiding judge said prosecutors immediately refiled the felonies dismissed Monday and Tuesday, which included domestic violence, assault, gang, drug and fraud cases. The defendants were arraigned again. Prosecutors may refile expired felony cases only once, said Sue Steding, chief assistant district attorney.

The district attorney’s office is considering whether to appeal Monday’s dismissal of a misdemeanor DUI case and is awaiting a ruling on its appeal of two misdemeanor cases dismissed earlier this year because of time constraints.

“Every week, really, we face dismissing cases,” said Richard Fields, the presiding judge of Riverside County Superior Court. He said “it’s been a miracle” that the courts had avoided dismissing felonies until now.

California Chief Justice Ronald M. George said Tuesday that Riverside’s backlog of cases was the worst in the state. The felony dismissals, he said, are “very unusual, but not unprecedented” in California and are always considered the last resort.

Other counties grappled with dismissals after the Legislature passed the three-strikes law, sending more and more complicated cases into the courts. As a result, the Judicial Council of California, which oversees the courts, sent a task force of judges around the state to help clear the cases.

Steding said her office was worried that the dismissals would lead defendants to be less likely to plead guilty at early stages of their cases, hoping they would eventually be dismissed.

There are 1,265 criminal cases pending in the Riverside Hall of Justice, which includes some cases from Indio and Murrieta that are on the verge of dismissal.

As Riverside County’s judicial system neared crisis earlier this year, George assembled the strike team of 27 judges who work part time, creating the equivalent of 12 full-time judges to help clear the oldest cases.

Some will leave in November, but as many as six may continue working in Riverside County. As of early October, the strike team had disposed of more than 60 cases.

George also set up a committee headed by Justice Richard Huffman of the 4th District Court of Appeal to examine the court’s procedures. One issue they are sorting through is whether more cases could be resolved through plea bargains.

Huffman said the major reason for the backup was the county’s population explosion. Riverside County added just three new judges from 1989 through 2006, while the population grew 76%, according to the judicial council.

“You increase the floodgate coming in, and then it throttles down through this small staffing level,” Huffman said.

Fields said the county’s judges had done everything they could to avoid the dismissals, including virtually shutting down civil trials. “We have maximized our resources. Every available trial courtroom is filled,” Fields said.

Officials in the district attorney’s office have urged the court to send expiring cases to judicial officers handling family law, probate and juvenile dependency matters. Fields, the presiding judge, has refused.

“In our view, there are courtrooms available to try these cases, and therein lies the conflict,” Steding said. “Dismissing criminal cases is against public safety.”

Fields said the law was ambiguous on whether a criminal case should take precedence over family law matters, such as restraining orders.

“We have tremendous need to protect victims of domestic violence . . . and we have an obligation to protect children. . . . So we feel that’s an unacceptable option,” he said.

Last year, Riverside County’s judges handled 795 criminal trials, nearly twice the load they handled in 2002, Fields said.

That exceeded the number of trials heard in San Diego County, even though it has about 1 million more people and roughly twice as many judges, he said.

Riverside County’s judges are on pace to handle about 950 criminal trials this year, not including those handled by the strike force.

The only permanent solution for the court’s crush will be to add more judges, George said. Riverside County has been one of the top beneficiaries of the 100 new judgeships the Legislature has created in the last two years.

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maeve.reston@latimes.com