VAN NUYS, CA – At a pretrial in the Los Angeles County Superior Court Van Nuys Courthouse Wednesday afternoon – after six consecutive days of “transportation mishaps” – another case was postponed causing the accused to “sit in custody longer.”
Inaccessible transportation to court hearings can potentially violate the 6th Amendment’s right to a speedy trial, admitted Judge Shellie Samuels, noting this is not an uncommon occurrence.
Judge Samuels empathizes with the accused and highlights the “need (for) more than five buses for the county.” While she acknowledges the expense, she deems this issue too large not to fund. For the first time in Samuels’ 25 years of being a judge she had to “dismiss a case because it’s already been refiled once and can’t be refiled again.”
In one particular case, the bus had “no room” for the accused, delaying the hearing to Nov. 22. These postponements add additional financial and emotional burdens to the accused, disproportionately affecting marginalized communities.
Despite Judge Samuels addressing these violations of the accused’s constitutional rights, all she could do was put accuseds on the “imperative list” and hope they can fit on the bus to their next hearing.
