This could be L.A.'s most secret courthouse *

Not many people probably know that there is a Mental Health Courthouse in Los Angeles County, or that when you report for Superior Court jury duty Downtown you could be sent to this building on San Fernando Road. Downtown News editor Jon Regardie learned that and more on a recent week of jury service. "Since I like to say nice things, I can state that, from the outside, it's definitely slightly nicer than a crack house," he wrote. More:

My bad attitude then got the payback it deserved. Our group of 35 was told that we weren't going to a courtroom in the building. Instead, we all had to drive to the L.A. County Mental Health Courthouse on San Fernando Road, just outside of Downtown. They warned us to grab lunch locally because there was no food, or anything, where we were going.

* Update: Times columnist Patt Morrison wrote about the county's mental health court in 1997.

Photo: Jon Regardie