Daily News from New York, New York • 80

E2 mmm life charges mm courts me ve're in serious trouble. I don't know what I want this job for Sat tj. the courts don't cause crime and the courts don't stop crime -liBHIPlIlM jr -i By MARCIA KRAMER Chief of the Nws Albany Bureau Chief Judge Sol Wachtler has charged that public officials are unfairly blaming the court system for crime and making it the scapegoat for society's inability to stop lawlessness. "The courts don't cause crime and the courts don't stop crime," said Wachtler. Wachtler said Wednesday that many public officials have failed to address the causes of crime, preferring instead to say simply: "If the courts put more people in jail we'd be better off." In fact, said Wachtler, New York jurists have been sending prisoners to jail in record numbers.

He noted that until 1975 the state's prison population had remained at 11,000 or so for years. Since then that population has grown to well over 30,000 and the prisons are operating beyond 110 of capacity, he said. "As it is now, the courts can hardly find more room to put people in jail," he said. At 54, Nassau County Republican Sol Wachtler Is the youngest chief judge In the history of the State Court of Appeals. He Is considered a liberal jurist who has sometimes veered to the right on criminal justice Issues.

A graduate of Washington and Lee University and Its law school, Wachtler Is a millionaire who made most of bis money from a Mineola, L.I., law practice. He was named to a vacancy on the Sassau Supreme Court In 1967. The following year be won election to a full term In 1972, Wachtler was elected to the Court of Appeals, becoming the youngest person to serve on the state's highest tribunal. Court of Appeals judges are now appointed by the governor. Wachtler Is married and the father of three daughters and a son.

Marcla Kramer By MARCIA KRAMER and FRANK LOMBARDI In a bid to make prosecutors more accountable for their actions, Chief Judge Sol Wachtler has proposed that the state scrap the grand jury system of bringing criminal indictments. Wachtler, who became the state's top judge earlier this month, said district attorneys now have so much influence on grand juries that "by and large" they could get them to "indict a ham sandwich." Grand juries, which normally have 23 members, are panels of average citizens that meet in secret to determine if there is sufficient evidence to warrant indictment a formal accusation that precedes a jury trial. Under Wachtlers proposal, a district attorney would present some of his evidence directly to a judge at a preliminary hearing to determine whether a suspect should have to stand trial. He said that bypassing the grand jury would save time and money, and would not erode the rights of the accused. ABOLISHING THE grand jury system would require a state constitutional amendment, which would have to be approved by the Legislature and by voters at a referendum.

Wachtler made his proposal during a wide-ranging interview with editors and reporters of the Daily News on the problems of the state's criminal justice system. His top priority, Wachtler said, is to establish an "individual calendar system" in which the same judge would have jurisdiction over a case from beginning to end. The present "master calendar system" allows different judges to handle the same case at various stages. Wachtler called it "the worse possible way to run the courts." WACHTLER ALSO said he is in favor of allowing television cameras into the courtrooms. Cameras are now barred by state law.

Wachtler also recommended: Establishing committees in each county to screen all judicial candidates in an effort to get better-qualified candidates. Limiting the number of appeals that reach the state's top courts. Making increased use of "mediation" to clear up civil cases and some categories of criminal cases without judicial action. In assessing the state's court system, Wachtler acknowledged that it faces a variety of serious problems and joked: "I don't know what I want this job for." On the grand jury issue, Wachtler said that "most of the time" prosecutors can obtain indictments sim- ply by how they present their case to 8 a grand jury. "1 "And what really bothers me is that it's used, more often than not, as a shield for the district attorney.

Most of the tiire when you want to get a prosecution and you want to indict, you use the grand jury and you can 3" get the damndest kind of indictments" AND WACHTLER said pros- ecutors csn ward off- complaints by saying: "Hey, you know, that's the grand jury; it's not me!" "It shouldn't be that way," Wachtler said. Although 25 states have limited the use of grand juries, only Pennsylvania has abolished the system entirely for the purpose of indictments. Six states require grand juries only for capital crimes. Bi isn fw If mm ts bam iif if few- I' By LARRY COLE and ALTON SLAGLE New Yorkers opened their hearts and their pocketbooks yesterday to save Winston, an aristocratic-looking English bulldog with a shattered leg. Winston was found in New Rochelle last week with no identifying tags.

X-rays showed there were bullet fragments in his shattered right hind leg. Officials of the New Rochelle Humane Society said Winston would have to be destroyed unless $800 was raised to pay for surgery. Callers deluged the Daily News switchboard with offers of help yesterday after seeing Winston's picture on page one city editions of the newspaper. Winston was to undergo four hours of surgery yesterday at the New Rochelle Animal Hospital. The operation was to be performed by Dr.

John Parks, a veterinarian at the Eastchester Animal Clinic and an expert in restorative surgery. "The phone just hasn't stopped ringing," said humane society president Audrey Cohen, referring to support for the pooch. "I think it's marvelous. I think it's incredible. I'm absolutely overwhelmed." The operation called for implanting a plate in the leg to hold the bone fragments together.

Parks also found indications of a puncture wound on Winston's face that called for more X-rays. Cost for the entire medical procedure, Cohen said, probably would total about $1,200. If the money is more than is needed for the surgery (arid after care, "it will pe put in escrow fo.r veterinary 'services such as this for other stray Cohen said. After a short recovery period, the society will consider calls for adoption. 4 JOHN PCtXN DAILY NEWS Wlnstonv.

an English receives i tender loving care from animal health technician Karen Forstenzer at the New Rochelle Animal Hospital..