ATTORNEY: PAYMENT TO JUDGES HISTORY'S LARGEST CORRUPTION.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

A taxpayer advocate attorney filed complaints Tuesday alleging Los Angeles County government pays judges an extra $30,000 a year each, on top of their state-paid salary and benefits, and claiming it makes them biased in cases involving the county.

``These Los Angeles County voluntary payments and the judges' practice of not disclosing the payments are probably the single largest corruption of a state judicial system in the history of our country,'' said attorney Richard I. Fine of Beverly Hills.

``Even worse, Los Angeles County is using taxpayer moneys for this while claiming it doesn't have money to fund health care for the poor, and other social programs.''

Fine filed the complaints with the Commission on Judicial Performance, the Fair Political Practices Commission, the California Attorney General's Office and the U.S. Department of Justice, asking them to investigate and prosecute Los Angeles County and Los Angeles Superior Court judges and commissioners for violations of criminal and other laws.

The complaints follow a lawsuit Fine filed June 13 on behalf of Sylmar resident John Silva against Los Angeles County, alleging that the payments were illegal.

Los Angeles Superior Court spokesman Allan Parachini said federal judges have dismissed two similar lawsuits filed by Fine.

``The only adjustments in the three actions are slight adjustments in who the plaintiff and defendants are,'' Parachini said. ``Mr. Fine has been told twice unequivocably by judges in federal court that there is no merit whatsoever to his complaint. We consider this a closed issue.''

Fine said the federal judges dismissed the cases, saying they did not have jurisdiction, and they did not decide the merits of the case. They said they would have jurisdiction over a case like Silva's lawsuit.

Since 1998, Los Angeles County has been paying judges more than $30,000 a year each above their base salary of $136,224, which will go up to $139,493 on July 1. Here is a breakdown of the extra funds paid annually:

--$25,884 in cash for health and insurance benefits, even though they are fully covered by the state.

--$5,586 in professional development for legal journals, books and conferences, although the court already provides most of the journals and pays for conferences.

--$840 a year as a transportation allowance, and in turn the judges pay $120 a month for parking at the downtown Civic Center.

--Two retirement programs, one from the county and one from the state. The county provides a matching contribution of up to 4 percent for the judges' retirement plans.