Don't spend MORE money on security...GET RID OF THE GANGS!!! DEPORT THEM!!! PUT THEM ON AN ISLAND SOMEWHERE!! Build the fence! Get them out of our country...they are a plague on our society !

Gang-member violence climbing in courtsBy Troy Anderson, Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 04/05/2008 10:15:02 PM PDT


Even as Los Angeles County's sprawling court system seeks to mete out justice, security is becoming a growing concern as the number of threats against its 600 judges, commissioners and referees has more than doubled in the past two years.

Threats against court personnel surged from 99 in 2006 to 267 last year, according to court records. And as violence and threats have risen, security costs have soared from $132 million three years ago to $169 million.

In recent years, a court commissioner and his wife were gunned down at their home, a judge's child was threatened at school, an attorney was shot repeatedly outside the Van Nuys Courthouse, and a judge's wife was kidnapped and killed.

"It's rare when a week goes by and I don't get some kind of call from the sheriff about a threat or something else involving our courts," Los Angeles Superior Court Presiding Judge J. Stephen Czuleger said.

"We've had many cases in which a witness has been threatened or the local public defender says they have a gang member who is very upset and is going to take action against a witness, a lawyer or the judge."

In some threat cases, the sheriff's Judicial Services Unit is assigned to provide around- the-clock security for judges and their families.
The threats have resulted in arrests of about five to 10 people each year.

Court security personnel also are confiscating about 200,000 weapons and restricted items - everything from guns


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and knives to razors and billy clubs - each year from the millions of people entering the county's 50 court facilities.
"In recent years, we've seen an increase in both threats and violence at the courthouses," said sheriff's Sgt. Steve Wheatcroft, who oversees the Security Operations and Judicial Services Unit.

"We're dealing with a lot more violent gang members, especially at some of our courthouses.

"The Compton courthouse alone has the largest number of murder cases of any courthouse in the country."

With an estimated 80,000 gang members in more than 1,000 gangs in the region, the number of Los Angeles County murder trials involving gang members rose from 121 in 2004 to 186 in 2006.

More than a dozen courthouses also border or are located in "gang territory," including sites in Van Nuys, San Fernando, Long Beach, Downey, Pomona, Norwalk, West Covina, El Monte and Whittier.

And the rising costs of securing the court system have led to a $12 million shortfall that Czuleger expects to grow to $17 million in 2008-09, while funding from the state Administrative Office of the Courts has remained flat.

Part of the problem is that the state uses a midrange sheriff's salary to calculate reimbursement for court security - but nearly 90percent of Los Angeles County sheriff's court personnel are at or near the highest salary range.

A recent three-year county contract with the Association of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs - calling for an 18 percent increase in pay - also has driven up costs.

The courts also must pay a $1,000 uniform and equipment allowance for security personnel, while state reimbursement is no more than $850.

And county government must pay for sheriff's deputies' retirement and health-care costs, big-ticket items the state excluded from its security allocation formula last year.

Lynn Holton, spokeswoman for the state Judicial Council, said violence at courthouses is rising throughout California, and Chief Justice Ron George last week urged lawmakers to provide more funding.

"Many courthouses have major security problems," George said in his State of the Judiciary Address.

"The lack of adequate resources is a contributing cause to the dangerous incidents that occur all too frequently in courthouses across the state."

George cited several Los Angeles County incidents, including an attempted escape in which a prisoner repeatedly punched a deputy in the face and cut him with a jail-made razor shank.

Despite struggling with a funding shortfall, Czuleger said he intends to keep courthouse security a top priority.

"I don't want anyone to die on my watch," Czuleger said. "That means I have to make sure the public, jurors, litigants, lawyers and the judges who come in to our courts by the thousands every day have a safe and secure location.

"I'm not going to allow an unsafe situation to exist, so we'll just have to cut elsewhere or we'll have to close down."

At the San Fernando Courthouse, Judge Ronald S. Coen said he supports more court security, particularly after a March 2005 incident in which a member of the Mara Salvatrucca gang - on trial for a double murder - used a concealed razor blade to slash the arm of his public defender.

"He thought his defense attorney had disrespected him by giving him clothes that smelled," Coen said.

After the incident, the bailiff removed the defendant from the courtroom, but the public defender decided to continue the trial.

"So from then on, (the defendant) was secured in the new `Hannibal Lecter' chair," Coen said, referring to a chair like that used to confine the main character in "The Silence of the Lambs" movie.

"It's a chair that leans. It's on wheels. His neck was secured. His wrists were secured, his ankles were secured, and he had to be rolled into court."

The gang member was convicted of murder and assault with a deadly weapon.

He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and given seven more years for the razor attack.

But District Attorney Steve Cooley said county government has long grappled with state funding formulas amid Los Angeles' higher cost of living and higher government employee salaries.

"That's just a built-in factor," Cooley said.

"I think outside experts should be routinely employed by the courts to assess their security needs and how they are providing security in the courthouses.

"Obviously, there is a serious gang problem in the county. But let's not leap from our serious gang problem that needs to be addressed, in many ways, to somehow say we need a lot more money for court security."
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