JUDGES SLASH BACKLOG IN HALF

Number Of Felony Cases Seen As Manageable

Santa Clara County's criminal court system, hobbled in recent years by a
staggering backlog of cases and some judges' penchant for leaving work early
to play golf, appears to be shaking off its troubled image.

More than a year after a county audit blasted the local criminal trial
system as one of the worst in California, and eight months after the Mercury
News raised questions about judicial work habits and court efficiency, the
Hall of Justice is a busier, more productive place.

The Superior Court has slashed the number of felony cases awaiting trial by
half since last summer, when the system was sputtering with a record backlog
of 1,000 pending cases. The backlog, or "inventory" as the judges call it,
was down to around 500 earlier this month -- the lowest in at least a decade
and by most accounts a manageable figure for the Bay Area's largest court.

Swifter justice in the courthouse appears to be paying off in the county's
overcrowded jails. Years of persistent backlogs meant defendants were
waiting longer behind bars for trial, but county corrections officials
report jail population has dropped since judges started handling more cases.

Court observers and insiders point to a host of possible reasons for the
dramatic change. They range from the systemic -- notably the merger in
January of Superior and Municipal courts into a single unified court -- to
the less tangible, such as judges working harder. In October, the Mercury
News reported that the Hall of Justice
virtually shut down on Fridays, with a clique of veteran judges often
leaving the courthouse early to play golf, run errands or go home.

Lawyers and judges familiar with the Hall of Justice, where the county's
most serious criminal cases are heard, say the combined focus of the Mercury
News series, the blistering county audit and judicial peer pressure appears
to have induced the entire bench to work harder.

"It seems they are paying more attention to business and less to pleasure,"
said one attorney knowledgeable about court administration. "If they are
golfing, they're less flagrant about it and not flaunting it."

One of the judges spotlighted in the Mercury News series says he no longer
golfs during the week. "If I golf at all, it's on weekends, and it hasn't
improved my game one single bit," said Judge Robert Foley, with a laugh.

Presiding Judge Jack Komar and other court leaders dismiss the suggestion
that past criticism has anything to do with the improved state of the
justice system. Instead, they insist that the Hall of Justice has been
reinvigorated by structural changes, particularly the unification of
Superior and Municipal courts into a single, 79-judge institution. A state
law passed by the voters last year enabled the court to unify, enabling all
judges to handle all kinds of legal work.

"There are lots of reasons things are better," Komar said recently. "Our
ability to reorganize ourselves as a result of unification has enabled us to
be more efficient."

At its three satellite courts, in Palo Alto, Sunnyvale and San Martin, the
court began a direct calendering system this year, in which a case stays
with a judge from start to finish. Also, many local judges credit the
creation of a five-judge drug court, which has dramatically reduced the
backlog of those cases, the most numerous in the criminal system.

Judge Lawrence Terry, drug-court supervisor, said the judges not only are
resolving drug cases at a rapid clip but also are identifying drug offenders
who should be funneled into treatment programs.

Foley, a member of the drug team who has advocated that approach for years,
agreed: "The part of the backlog that went away are the drug cases; this
gives the trial judges a chance to whittle away at other felonies."

Finally, officials say the hiring of more public defenders and prosecutors
since the start of the fiscal year in July has helped judges fill once-empty
courtrooms with trials. Judges have complained for years that a shortage of
lawyers kept them from trying cases.

"There was a whole backlog of cases of people who wanted to plead guilty
early on in the case but they couldn't because there wasn't a court or
lawyer available," said Assistant Public Defender Mary Greenwood.

Greenwood and many other judges and lawyers also point to stronger
leadership within the court, particularly from Komar as presiding judge, and
from Judge John Garibaldi, who has taken over the often frustrating task of
supervising the busy felony trial calendar. Komar has managed to improve the
situation in the criminal courts without impairing the judges' ability to
hear the massive docket of civil lawsuits, a problem that arose in the past.

"They have particularly good judges in key positions," said District
Attorney George Kennedy.

Whatever the reasons for the improved performance, the county's judges are
breathing a collective sigh of relief. The court had been under fire since
at least April 1998, when an audit commissioned by the Board of Supervisors
said Santa Clara County had the least efficient criminal trial system of the
17 largest counties in the state.

In October, the Mercury News interviewed dozens of lawyers and judges as
part of an examination of the Hall of Justice. It found that many of those
lawyers and judges believed a culture of lax work habits had contributed to
a deterioration of the system over the years.

Among other things, an investigation determined that the Hall of Justice
routinely was dormant on Fridays and that a group of Superior Court judges
regularly took off for golf outings, even as the court's backlog mounted.
The judges were able to come and go under a largely unregulated vacation policy.

Judges Thomas Hastings, Daniel Creed, Hugh Mullin III and Foley -- all among
the county's most experienced criminal jurists -- were the most frequent
Friday golfers. Judge Rene Navarro occasionally joined them, and Judge John
Ball acknowledged he golfed with his colleagues in past years.

"Friday is a pretty busy day nowadays," Foley said, noting that in his
duties as a drug-court judge, he discusses narcotics cases in the morning,
and takes pleas from defendants in the afternoon.

Some other judges declined comment or did not return calls. Last year,
judges said they were doing nothing wrong by playing golf during the week;
they maintained they were working hard, often on weekends, and taking valid
vacation time when they left early, although the time often didn't show up
on vacation records.

The judges' vacation policy appears unchanged. It essentially is an honor
system in which judges are expected to keep track of their own time off. But
observers say judges now are working five-day weeks more consistently.

Asked whether he kept better track of his own vacation, Foley said: "Oh yes2E"

Since the fall, lawyers and judges report the Hall of Justice is busier on
46ridays, and judges appear to be playing golf more on weekends, according
to a computerized golf-handicap database that tracks when and where rounds
are played along with scores.

Garibaldi doesn't stalk the hallways, but said he believes all judges are
working five days a week: "I do the best I can to make sure judges are kept
busy whether it's a Monday or a Friday."

Judges statewide have noted the flak taken by Santa Clara County's judges.
One Los Angeles judge, Candace Cooper, recently told a legal newspaper that
the Mercury News account of golfing judges was given to all the judges in
her county.

"I think to the extent it caused people to assess their own work habits,
maybe it had a healthy ... effect (statewide)," said San Jose-based appeals
court Justice William Wunderlich, president of the California Judges
Association.

Contact Sandra Gonzales at sgonzales@sjmercury.com or (408) 295-3983 and
Howard Mintz at hmintz@sjmercury.com or (408) 286-0236.