Not enough QUALIFIED judges

[Jerry Pitts]

Mercury News
Felony cases tossed due lack of judges in Riverside County
The Associated Press
04/24/2008
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingn...nclick_check=1

RIVERSIDE, Calif.—More felony cases are being dropped in Riverside County because there aren't enough judges to hear them.

Supervising Superior Court Judge Helios Hernandez this week dismissed two more felony cases—one of them an assault case, the second for burglary. Prosecutors immediately refiled the cases.

Seventeen cases have been tossed by the calendar-clogged court in the past 16 months. Riverside County courts have a backlog of more than 1,000 criminal trials.

The county has 56 judges and 20 commissioners, but the state Judicial Council says nearly double that number are needed. The county was scheduled to get another 14 judges over the next two years, but the positions have been stalled because of a tight state budget.

Please Remember J.A.I.L.:
P.O. Box 207
North Hollywood, CA. 91603

[theghost]

This is interesting, and I would imagine more common than one might think. A similar thing is happening in my county, here in Illinois. Despite the local county courthouse building 20 more courtrooms in addition to the 30 something they already have, in order to handle the insane backlog of corporate business they have on the books, they are forced to turn some biz away. Must be rough. A talk I had with an attorney some months ago also revealed that the local states attorney routinely dismisses/refuses to prosecute several cases, including felonies, every month, based on their publicity value! He told me that the SA refuses cases that will not bring large publicity, which would bolster his political aspirations (climbing the corporate ladder). In his own words, (the attorney's), "the states attorney is a piece of s#*t". Is it really any wonder that these businesses masquerading as "governments" trade on the stock market? Just ask D&B (Dunn & Bradstreet). This should cause the illumination of enough light bulbs in the human brain to light the planet. Hey, that's one way to defeat the darkside, eh?