Jurors Find That Doing Their Duty Pays Off

A metal detector and serious-faced armed guards stood at the doorway in the front. Columns of gaily colored balloons and the smiling raffle lady stood at the doorway in the back.

There were two distinct sides to the Compton Courthouse on Monday for the 360 people reporting for duty in the jury room.

Jury Appreciation Week was starting. And Compton’s jurors were most appreciative.

“I was hoping to get on a case just so I would be here this week,” said Rita Kohn of Torrance, starting her sixth day of jury service at the fortress-like courthouse.

Kohn jotted her birthday on a piece of paper and dropped it in a container to qualify for the day’s first raffle. The winner would get a gift from the courthouse prize cart--a crepe-paper decorated mail cart overflowing with festively wrapped packages.

Other gifts would go to winners of the day’s Word Scrabble and Brain Teaser contests, a pair of printed puzzles distributed to jurors as they entered the assembly room.

A jar of jellybeans was ready to be claimed by the juror who most closely guessed the number of candies it contained.

“This beats any other courthouse I’ve been in,” said juror William DuBois of Compton.

That was exactly the kind of thing that officials were hoping to hear at the Compton Courthouse--a grim place populated by shackled felony suspects and known for some of the nastiest criminal cases in Los Angeles County.

Jury Appreciation Week events are scheduled at all 33 of the county’s courthouse jury rooms this week, according to officials. But none are more extensive than those planned for Compton’s.

There are drawings for free dinners at restaurants in Compton, Gardena, Carson, Bellflower and Lakewood and gift certificates from local stores.

The courthouse’s judges passed the hat to raise $110 for the balloons that decorate the jury room doorway, said jury coordinator Phiyen Tran. Police officers at the Compton Police Department, whose station is next door to the courthouse, chipped in to help pay for other expenses.

The relaxed atmosphere was welcomed by jurors.

First-timers, particularly those from out of town, are sometimes intimidated by the courthouse. It dominates the Compton skyline, towering over an adjoining residential neighborhood and nearby shops.

Its trials--often of cases involving drive-by shootings, violent stabbings and aggravated assaults--also can be overwhelming.

“We have a lot of murder cases, a lot of gang cases, a lot of third-strike cases,” said David Traum, head deputy district attorney for Compton.

Activities at other courthouses Monday ranged from potluck lunches to magic shows. In downtown Los Angeles, singers and dancers entertained jurors as a three-day fair got underway. Court administrators talked about raising jurors’ pay and adding other incentives for service.

Proposed legislation would boost pay from $5 a day to $16, more than double jurors’ mileage allowances and reimburse jurors’ child-care costs, said John A. Clarke, executive officer for the Superior Court.

“We’re trying to get more money for you so you don’t have to write a book to be compensated for your service,” joked county Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke.

Jurors at the noon event said more courthouse momentum--not necessarily more money--is needed to make jury duty palatable.

“The biggest problem is there’s too much time standing in the halls, waiting,” said juror Sandy Rothberg of West Los Angeles.

Juror Joanne Downes of Atwater Village said: “They should do some juror pre-qualification. That would save a lot of time. And maybe free coffee and tea; you function better in the morning with coffee.”

First-time juror Ray Orrante of Whittier agreed. “How about a free lunch here or there, or snacks in the jury room?” he asked.

Back at the Compton Courthouse, Patricia Miller saw merit in that suggestion.

“Maybe once a week they could do something to boost our morale,” said Miller, in her fifth day of jury duty.

County officials said they don’t have a budget to pay for such perks as free coffee and doughnuts for each of the 6,000 or so jurors called to duty daily. So for now, appreciation will be shown yearly.

On today’s raffle schedule in Compton are free meals at a pancake shop, a chicken pot pie restaurant, a steak house, a pie shop, a soup restaurant and a barbecue place.

Not to mention free lunch for some lucky winner at the courthouse cafeteria.