The courts won’t review what happened to Monica Thomas-Harris, but rest assured they’ve got plenty of time to talk to reporters about Britney Spears.

Possibly, this proves once again that, in Los Angeles County, celebrity justice trumps anything resembling real justice.

Thomas-Harris, 37, was killed Jan. 5 in a Whittier motel room by her estranged husband, Curtis Bernard Harris.

Two weeks earlier, the husband had been sentenced to 16 months in prison after pleading no contest to two felonies stemming from the December kidnaping of Thomas-Harris in West Covina.

Instead of sending Curtis Harris straight to jail for the crimes, prosecutors and Pomona Superior Court Judge Tia Fisher set Harris free for a month to get his affairs in order. They did it against the recommendation of the Los Angeles County Probation Department, which saw Harris as a danger.

They did it even though Thomas-Harris had told her friends her ex was coming to get her.

Domestic violence watchdogs say the release was in complete disregard of standard procedures in such cases.

But, the system allowed Harris to take care of his personal business with a get-out-of-jail free card. And, the system forgot to warn Thomas-Harris that the man who kidnapped her two weeks earlier was back on the streets.

That Thomas-Harris turned up missing and ultimately dead from a single gunshot wound to the head might be viewed as simply a consequence of business as usual for most residents of Los Angeles County. Try telling that to a pair of motherless children.

Thomas-Harris’ murder clearly left DA Steve Cooley with egg on his face. He responded with an in-house investigation. But he hasn’t appeared publicly and only issued a three-paragraph statement.

“The tragic murder of Monica Thomas-Harris is a matter of great concern to those of us in the District Attorney’s Office,” Cooley’s statement began.

“I ordered an internal analysis of the circumstances leading up to the release of her estranged husband and murderer,” the statement reads. “That investigation will continue and will determine whether there were any violations of office policy and/or failure to follow procedures established for these types of cases.”

Interestingly, the investigation is being done by the head of the department that probably messed up in the first place.

That’s sort of like asking your children to investigate who left the garden hose running in the back yard overnight. The end result will be a lot of finger pointing and no real answers.

But, the DA’s Office shouldn’t bear the brunt of the blame. The Superior Court has got to take some responsibility as well.

And that’s where Britney comes in.

On Friday, court spokesman Alan Parachini said there would be no formal probe of Thomas’ release in the courts.

“Sure judges are concerned,” he said. “This is by anybody’s standard a tragedy. We wish it hadn’t occurred. But if you are looking for an exact analogue to what the DA’s office is doing, that isn’t the way the we work.”

Before I spoke to Parachini, the people who shield him from people like me were very intent on determining if I was calling about Britney.

I don’t know if that was to make sure I wasn’t some stalkerazzi (San Gabriel Valley Tribune just screams celebrity rag doesn’t it?) or intended to get Parachini to the phone faster because of the 24-hour, all-Britney, all-the-time news cycle.

I asked Parachini about the screening process, and he said cryptically: “We respond to media calls.”

Too bad no one responded to Thomas-Harris’ situation as a call – for help.