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# County courthouse opens new $2 million jury room
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/county-courthouse-opens-new-2-million-jury-room/
- Published: 2002-07-12T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T00:29:37.000Z
- Author: Andrew Fixmer
- Tags: Crime, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*Jury room ‘crown jewel’ of Los Angeles County*

Jurors in Santa Monica can now grab a gourmet coffee, check their e-mail, enjoy ocean views and recline on plush couches watching DVDs on a 42-inch television screen while waiting for their trials to begin.

Superior Court officials opened the new $2 million juror assembly room on the third floor of the Santa Monica Courthouse Thursday, which has been heralded as the “crown jewel” of the county’s court system.

Juror assembly rooms are waiting areas where jurors gather before being selected for a trial. Court officials say about 150 jurors are called into Santa Monica court on a daily basis, and the average juror will spend two hours waiting to be selected for a trial.

“Probably the longest any one would wait... they might be sitting around here for two hours,” said Allan Parachini, Superior Court director of public information. “But two hours with an ocean view-patio isn’t a bad gig.”

The new facilities include a kitchenette area with refrigerator, microwave and vending machines — 20 oz. sodas are $1.15 and a large Starbucks coffee is 75 cents.

There is an office center with coin-operated fax and photocopy machines, along with 17 cubicles where jurors can plug their laptops into digital modem lines free of charge and surf the Internet or check their e-mail.

The west side of the room is connected to a large outdoor patio where splashes of the ocean can be spotted through rows of beachfront hotels and office buildings. More than 30 lockers have been installed to give jurors a place to store their belongings for free while they listen to lawyers pontificate in the courtrooms below.

“I know what everybody is going to think — these quiche-eating, Chablis-sip-ping westsiders get everything,” said Los Angeles Superior Court Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. “Well, Santa Monica was well behind the rest of the county for a long time and this make-over was long overdue.”

> “I know what everybody is going to think — these quiche-eating, Chablis-sipping westsiders get everything...” — — ZEV YAROSLAVSKY L.A. Superior Court Supervisor

No clocks have been posted in the waiting room, but officials said it was an oversight. One has been ordered.

Yaroslavsky is credited in helping raise money from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for renovating the third floor of the courthouse, which used to be a cafeteria before it was closed several years ago.

Ninety percent of the money for the project came from the county, which owns and operates the Superior Court building. The other 10 percent came from court fee revenues.

“It is a an inconvenience to be called in for jury duty, under the best of conditions,” Yaroslavsky said. “We in the government who have called these folks into duty have to remember that it’s an inconvenience, and this room clearly shows how much we value them.”

Court officials said jurors in Santa Monica are called in from a 10-mile radius, and the group tends to have a lot of needs. A high percentage of them cannot go a day without their computers or being connected to the Internet, they said.

“Today jurors want to be able to check e-mail and work,” Parachini said. “To the extent we can, we want to provide them with that.”

Even Yaroslavsky said Santa Monica’s courthouse draws a unique cadre of jurors.

“This is one of the busiest courthouses around — it tends to draw a lot of attention because of the high profile cases it attracts,” he said. “But we now have a 21st Century jury room for a 21st Century jury.”

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/071202-01_01.jpg)

The new juror room at the Santa Monica Courthouse has plenty of room for people to lounge while awaiting their trials. (Photo: Andrew H. Fixmer/Daily Press)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 12, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/071202.pdf?ref=smdp.com)