By Daily Press staff
A power outage downtown Wednesday afternoon forced the early closure of the Santa Monica courthouse and had local restaurants scrambling to serve their customers.
The lights went out shortly after 1:30 p.m. when a high-voltage cable in the Civic Center went bad, said Mark Olson, a spokesman for Southern California Edison.
Businesses from the beach up to Fourth Street between Colorado and Pico boulevards were affected by the outage.
Lawyers, judges, clerks, jurors and workers gathered in front of the courthouse when it was emptied after the power went out.
Though electricity was restored to everyone by 3:40 p.m., courthouse officials called it quits in the mid-afternoon and suspended all proceedings until Thursday.
Juli Anne Armitage, a local wedding photographer accused of allegedly stealing from her customers, remained in custody at the courthouse throughout the power outage.
She was scheduled to go before a judge Wednesday morning but her case was pushed until the afternoon and eventually tabled altogether when the power died.
She is expected to go before a judge today.
Over at the beach, salads and iced teas were all that was for sale at seaside restaurants, where hot items were on hold while kitchen exhaust fans could be brought back to life.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 8, 2003. Read the original PDF.