New courthouse set to return civil cases to Valley

This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press January 26, 2001

By BOB WILSON
Valley Press Staff Writer

PALMDALE - In about a week, four jurists will relocate from cramped quarters at the Antelope Valley Courthouse in Lancaster to new digs in Palmdale, where they will begin tackling civil cases locally for the first time in a decade.

Although a parking lot for the Palmdale Civil Courthouse remains under construction, the first day of proceedings will get under way on Monday, Feb. 5, said Kyle Christopherson, public information officer for the Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Those proceedings will be led by Judge Frank Jackson, Judge Randolph Rogers, Commissioner Eugene Siegel and Referee Ross Amspoker, Christopherson said.

For years, Jackson has heard criminal cases in Department A while serving as the supervising judge for the North District courts, which were built more than 40 years ago in Lancaster.

Now Jackson will hear general civil cases in a new courtroom at Ninth Street East and Avenue Q10.

Rogers, who has been handling misdemeanor cases and unlawful detainers in Division 6, now will preside over general civil cases and probate.

The duties of Siegel and Amspoker will not change. Siegel rules on family-law matters and Amspoker on law-and-motion matters.

Attempts on Thursday to reach Jackson, Rogers and Fran Burnett, assistant district administrator for Antelope Superior Court, were unsuccessful.

Construction of the $3.7 million four-courtroom facility was funded by the city of Palmdale when Los Angeles County failed to move forward with plans for a new regional courthouse for the Antelope Valley.

The four courtrooms, a court clerk's office and a multipurpose room that will double as a jury assembly room were completed about a month ago, said Leon Swain, Palmdale's deputy director of public works.

County employees have been moving furniture and equipment into the building for several weeks while construction workers attended to details and began preparing for the installation of the parking lot, Swain said.

The parking area "was never planned to be completed until shortly after the courthouse opened," he said. "We had to relocate some modular buildings and finish the administration-building remodel. We knew there would be a few weeks delay."

The parking area, along Avenue Q-10 between Sierra Highway and Ninth Street East, should be completed in early March, Swain said.

The lot will accommodate 140 visitors to both the courthouse and nearby city offices, he said.

It was his understanding that jury trials at the new courthouse would be delayed until the lot was finished, he added.

The Palmdale courthouse is the first new judicial building in the Antelope Valley for more than 40 years.

After 15 years of planning, county officials finally held a groundbreaking ceremony in November for a new regional courthouse intended to upgrade the county complex at 10th Street West and Avenue J.

The $110 million court facility, to be built at Fourth Street West and Avenue M, is expected to open by summer 2003.

When opened, the new regional courthouse is supposed to accommodate the bulk of criminal and civil trials filed in the Antelope Valley.

Because the Palmdale facility has no lockup for offenders, it probably will be limited to handling future civil matters such as small claims, family law, probate and lawsuits, while Lancaster's courtrooms will continue to be used for criminal and juvenile cases.

The opening of the Palmdale courthouse will mark the return of civil trials to the Antelope Valley.

Since 1990, all the civil cases and about half the criminal ones initiated in the Antelope Valley have been transferred to courthouses in Van Nuys and Long Beach because the demand for justice has exceeded the supply of courtrooms.

After the transfer of Jackson, Rogers, Siegel and Amspoker, Lancaster court cases will be handled by judges Carol Koppel, Pamela Rogers, Richard Spann, Steven Ogden, David Mintz and Chris Estes, as well as by Commissioner Cathrin Devoe and Referee Ronald Taylor.