COURT ADDED FOR KID SUSPECTS JUVENILE CRIME GROWS WITH POPULATION.

Byline: KAREN MAESHIRO Staff Writer

LANCASTER -- Citing an increase in juvenile crime in the Antelope Valley, court officials will open a second juvenile delinquency court in Lancaster on Tuesday.

The juvenile criminal caseload has jumped nearly 30 percent, from 1,182 cases filed in the Antelope Valley in fiscal 2004-2005 to 1,531 cases in 2005-06, making it the busiest juvenile court in Los Angeles County.

``I think it's fantastic. It's long overdue,'' Lancaster Juvenile Court Judge Richard Naranjo said. ``We've been working very long hours in this court.

``Kids have been waiting all day to have their cases heard, parents are waiting, and victims and witnesses are here until 8 or 9 at night to have their trials completed.''

The juvenile criminal caseload has jumped nearly 30 percent, from 1,182 cases filed in the Antelope Valley in fiscal 2004-2005 to 1,531 cases in 2005-06, making it the busiest juvenile court in Los Angeles County.

The additional court will be located at the former Lancaster courthouse at 10th Street West and Avenue J, where there is now a juvenile delinquency court, a juvenile dependency court and a juvenile traffic court.

The facility is called the Alfred J. McCourtney Juvenile Justice Center after the late Judge Alfred J. McCourtney, Antelope Valley's first judge and a former Superior Court presiding judge and juvenile courts presiding judge.

``The workload in the other court has gotten to the point where it is necessary to have a second court. Department 285 has the heaviest court calendar for juvenile in the entire county, so they decided to open another court, Department 286,'' said prosecutor Lonnie Felker, the district attorney's head of juvenile justice cases in the Antelope Valley and Sylmar.

The district attorney has added two more prosecutors to the Lancaster office, doubling the size of the staff.

``This is one of those things that has been somewhat overdue. We needed to have this court because of the heavy volume in (Department) 285,'' Felker said.

``We think it's an excellent idea to open up a court, and we are glad to staff it. We are happy that we'll have an additional court to take some of the load off Judge Naranjo.''

The second court will be presided over by Referee Robin Kesler, court officials said.

Prosecutors and court officials attributed the increase in juvenile crime in the area to the Antelope Valley's population growth.

``It's been increasing over the years because the population has been increasing over the years,'' Felker said. ``As the population grows, so does the court calendar.''

From 1990 to 2005, the Antelope Valley experienced a 61.7 percent population increase, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, court officials said.

Naranjo cited the lack of services for youth.

``We don't have a lot of community-based intervention programs that might be able to divert cases from getting filed first,'' Naranjo said.

The former Lancaster courthouse was remodeled and reopened as the McCourtney center in 2004 at a cost of $2.2 million.

County officials said at the time the facility would reduce or eliminate the need to transport children to Sylmar courts in Monterey Park.

``We knew from the start of the McCourtney remodeling project that juvenile caseloads in the Antelope Valley would increase and eventually require more courtroom capacity. We did not anticipate that growth would happen so quickly, however, and this development makes us doubly grateful to Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich for pressing ahead with the renovation project,'' said Juvenile Court Presiding Judge Michael Nash in a written statement.

The center has a children's waiting area, office space for the county counsel, a children's law center and offices for those who work on juvenile cases: prosecutors, public defenders, alternate public defenders, court-appointed special advocates and personnel from the Department of Children and Family Services and Probation Department.

The Lancaster courthouse was replaced in 2003 as the Superior Court by the new Michael D. Antonovich Antelope Valley Courthouse on Avenue M.

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com

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