“Public buildings often accurately reflect the beliefs, priorities, and aspirations of a people.” —former Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell
If Justice Powell was right, the Gordon D. Schaber courthouse on Ninth Street should have been put out of its misery long ago. Now on the market for $13.6 million, its days hosting trials are over.
Whoever buys the courthouse will largely have a free hand, city building regulations notwithstanding, to renovate, convert to offices or condos, or tear it down and start over at the 2½-acre site.
If I’m the judge, it gets razed. That’s the proper outcome.
I spent a lot of time in the old courthouse. In 2001, I was there every day to work on a book about life behind the scenes at the district attorney’s office. It was among the most interesting years of my journalism career, but I have no affection for the building.
Compelling dramas unfolded in those courtrooms and hallways, but the setting was grim, overcrowded, dimly lit and charmless.
Modern courthouses, including our new one in the Downtown railyards, have separate, secure systems for transporting criminal defendants and inmates to and from court. At the Schaber courthouse, prisoners often rode public elevators, albeit restrained.
Lyndon Johnson was president when the courthouse opened in 1965. Back then, the building was home to civil and criminal courtrooms and the main offices of the district attorney, public defender and probation department.
Crime being a growth industry, those ancillary offices were relocated to make room for more courtrooms and trials. But the place was still overcrowded.
The impressive new Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye Courthouse opened in April in the railyards at Fifth and G streets. With its modern façade and technology, abundance of natural light and roomier space, it’s fitting for an ambitious city.
The new building has a 500-person jury assembly room with touch screens for jury check-in and other amenities. With 538,000 square feet and 53 courtrooms, the place is spacious.
The price tag was $514 million, but the new courthouse will eventually be seen as a bargain anchoring Downtown’s hottest development hub. The railyards will soon jump with a new hospital and soccer stadium, housing and retail.
Among lawyers toiling in the old courthouse, few spent as much time there as Linda Parisi, a top criminal defense attorney, and John O’Mara, former longtime homicide prosecutor and supervisor in the district attorney’s office.
They tried hundreds of tough cases there, including some of highest profile and longest murder trials in the city’s modern history. O’Mara is retired, but Parisi is still on the job. I wanted to hear how she and O’Mara felt about their old stomping grounds.
“I never felt unsafe there, but the building had no charm,” Parisi says. “I am a little worried, though, that we’re going from six floors to 18 floors. That can be a little overwhelming for people.”
In his unassuming way, O’Mara tells me he had no special feelings for the old courthouse. “When I started in the DA’s office, it was my first job,” he says. “It could have been in someone’s garage and it would have been OK.”
Top-flight attorneys like those two could succeed anywhere. But for people who hope they never step foot inside a courthouse unless they happen to like being on a jury (an experience I find fascinating), they now have a reason to visit just to see how far we’ve come.
Gary Delsohn can be reached at gdelsohn@gmail.com. Follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram: @insidesacramento.
