More Hardship for Abused Children : County Shows Lack of Compassion in Moving Court to Ease Overcrowding on Docket Cases

Just two weeks ago today, we were praising the efforts of the Los Angeles County officials who had finally made good on promises to deal with the Antelope Valley’s staggering child abuse problem. Perhaps a bit of that praise was premature, particularly in the aftermath of the Northridge quake.

Since the fall of 1992, the Times has reported that the Antelope Valley has maintained one of the highest rates of reported child abuse in the county. Nevertheless, county officials increased the hardships on these children with a shift of the nearest court for these types of cases from Van Nuys to Monterey Park, some 70 miles distant. Part of our recent praise was reserved for the installation of a satellite court for child abuse cases in Lancaster last July.

But the docket for the relatively new Lancaster dependency court is already jammed and rife with delays. That situation recently led the presiding judge of the county’s juvenile court, Marcus Tucker, to make an unfortunate decision: moving initial court hearings all the way to Monterey Park.

Tucker has now relented, having noted the fact that the quake has perhaps doubled the usual two-hour travel time between the High Desert and Monterey Park. If it can be said that one good thing occurred because of the quake, this might be it. But the judge’s latest decision is only a temporary reprieve; he plans to reinstate the transfer once transportation conditions improve.

In the months before that happens, county officials should step forward with suitable action. Building a new Lancaster courthouse might be prohibitively expensive, but the leasing of additional office space there to relieve overcrowding on the child abuse docket might be much more cost-effective. It would also be a far more compassionate route for the county to take on behalf of young victims of abuse.