Santa Clarita Valley Felonies Being Sent to San Fernando Court

Budgetary issues have finally made a significant impact at the Santa Clarita Court. While the court has been forced to do the same work with less staff over the past few years, Los Angeles Superior Court officials have deemed it necessary to close the Santa Clarita felony courtroom (Division 1), and transfer the felony cases to the San Fernando Courthouse starting next Monday, September 12th. The main consideration is saving court money, including costs for substantial staffing relating to felony custody inmates.

Historically, Santa Clarita Courthouse has handled felony cases from the arraignment stage through the preliminary hearing stage. Subsequent to the preliminary hearing stage, Santa Clarita Valley felony cases had then been transfered to San Fernando Court, since San Fernando Court had substantially more available courtroom resources. The transfer essentially consolidates all of the Santa Clarita Valley felony cases from the beginning, into San Fernando Court.

One downside is to Los Angeles County Sheriff (Santa Clarita Station). The LASD, located down the hall from the DA's Office at the Government Center in Santa Clarita, will now have their detectives driving felony case filings to San Fernando. LASD deputies and detectives will also have to drive to San Fernando Courthouse to testify in all of their felony cases, including preliminary hearings. In some ways, the money saved by the court, will translate in the County of Los Angeles likely paying for additional overtime and staffing, and resulting in the loss of locally available deputies and detectives at the Santa Clarita Station. It will also impact local residents (witnesses and defendants) in the Santa Clarita Valley who will have to drive to San Fernando Courthouse, instead.

Santa Clarita Court will continue to hear misdemeanor and traffic cases in their courtrooms. It will, however, be interesting to see how the changes impact both Santa Clarita and San Fernando Courthouses. Because Santa Clarita becomes a less significant courthouse for criminal cases, this may be taken into consideration in future decisions of court restructuring of LA County Courts.