Mike Hestrin, the district attorney of Riverside County, California, says the dismissal of more than 1,000 criminal Superior Court cases in recent weeks is depriving victims of justice.
In October, the court stated that 2,800 pending cases were set for trial. As of Dec. 16, there are about 2,200 backlogged cases, and the county’s Superior Court judges have dismissed 1,098 criminal cases.
The judges began dismissing cases on Oct. 10, citing a lack of available trial courtrooms, according to a statement issued by Hestrin’s office on Dec. 19. The dismissals include felony and misdemeanor cases of nearly all types of alleged crimes.
About 83 felony cases of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, sex crimes, child abuse, domestic violence, and others have been dismissed so far.
“People are now getting the sense in Riverside County, that the courts don’t care, or the system doesn’t work—that it’s profoundly broken. If they are harmed, [they feel] nothing is going to happen to the person that harmed them. That’s what’s spreading around the county by word of mouth,” Hestrin said in an interview with California Insider host Siyamak Khorrami. “It’s incredibly dangerous.”
Pandemic Backlog
During the pandemic, police continued to make arrests, but because the courts were partially closed due to emergency orders and statewide public health mandates, backlogs grew, Hestrin said.
In 2020, then California Chief Justice Tani Gorre Cantil-Sakauye empowered the state’s 58 Superior Courts to decide individually whether to suspend jury trials, prioritize criminal cases over civil cases, and use video conferencing in place of in-person court appearances.
The statutory deadlines for bringing criminal defendants to trial were reinstated on Oct. 10, meaning it was no longer legal to keep delaying court cases as of that date.
The district attorney’s office is arguing against the dismissals and immediately refiling felony cases and appeals that are being dismissed—however, misdemeanor cases can’t be refiled, Hestrin said.
He told Khorrami, “We’re the only county in this state that has these mass dismissals—the only one.”
Sacramento County, which has fewer judges per capita, brought in retired judges, extended courtroom hours, and even held night court to deal with the backlog, he said.
Judge Shortage
Judge John Monterosso said in a statement that the county has a “chronic and generational lack of judges” to serve Riverside, noting that it’s the 10th-most populous county in the nation.“The Riverside Superior Court has a total of 90 authorized and funded judicial positions, some of which remain vacant. However, according to a 2020 Judicial Needs Assessment Study published by the Judicial Council of California, Riverside has an assessed need for 115 judicial officers, resulting in a wide gap between what our community is entitled to and what it has been provided,” the judge stated.
Monterosso said that 3.7 judicial officers per 100,000 residents in Riverside County is “woefully short of the statewide average of 11.4.”
Despite a shortage of judges and COVID-19 restrictions, the Riverside Superior Court has conducted 368 criminal jury trials and 94 civil trials since the onset of the pandemic, he said.
He said “it is settled law that backlogs due to a chronic shortage of judges is not good cause to continue a criminal case” beyond statutory deadlines specified in California Penal Code 1382.
Riverside Superior Court has taken steps to address the backlog, including deploying civil judges to hear criminal trials, redesignating some departments to hear criminal trials, and even using retired judges on a temporary basis, Monterosso said.
Hestrin confirmed there has been a chronic shortage of judges in Riverside County.
“As long as I can remember … there have been too few judges for the population,” said Hestrin, who has worked in the county for about 30 years, the last eight of which he has served as district attorney.
While the impact on communities has been “devastating” and crime victims “feel let down,” the problem of dismissing cases runs deeper because doing so erodes public trust in the criminal justice system, he said.
The district attorney’s office currently handles about 55,000 criminal matters each year.
“There’s no way we could try all those cases, so many of the cases end before trial,” he said.
If accused criminals know there is a good chance of their cases being dismissed, “what’s their incentive to engage in plea bargaining?” Hestrin asked. “There’s none.”
Hestrin said the majority of the dismissed cases are in the eastern regions of the county.
