County Grand Jury Urged to Study Viet Gangsterism

The Orange County Democratic chairman and five other men, including a colleague of slain Cal State Fullerton professor Edward Lee Cooperman, asked the county grand jury on Monday to investigate local Vietnamese gangs and suggested these gangs might be responsible for some political murders as well as extortion and robbery in the Vietnamese community.

The request stems from dissatisfaction among Cooperman’s friends, who believe the district attorney’s office did not thoroughly investigate a possible political motive for Cooperman’s shooting death last October at his campus office. Cooperman was active in scientific exchange programs with Vietnam and complained about death threats after he supported normalization of relations between the United States and communist Vietnam.

A 21-year-old Vietnamese student, Minh Van Lam, was convicted in March of involuntary manslaughter in the physics professor’s death. The prosecution sought a murder conviction but offered no motive at Lam’s trial. Prosecutors said Cooperman’s friends never provided evidence that could be used in court to support their theory of a political assassination.

Bruce Sumner, chairman of the county’s Democratic Central Committee, said he joined in the request, contained in a letter sent to the grand jury, in part because of the Cooperman case. Sumner said his endorsement of the letter was the action of a private citizen, not an official action of the county Democratic chairman.

“There were allegations raised about possible Vietnamese gang involvement,” Sumner said. “Let’s have a grand jury investigation so we can put those allegations to rest if they aren’t true.”

New Jury in July

Thomas Kehoe, foreman of the 1984-1985 grand jury, said he has not read the letter yet, but said the grand jury might be interested “if we have any time.” The present grand jurors will be dismissed June 30. Kehoe said the inquiry suggested by the letter could be passed on to the new grand jury, which takes over July 1.

The letter to the grand jury was written primarily by Sheldon Maram, a Cal State Fullerton history professor and a friend of Cooperman. The letter contains no reference to Cooperman, but Maram acknowledged in an interview that the case lead him to write the letter.

Others who signed the letter are Amin David, who is active in Latino affairs in Orange County; William Thom, a former Anaheim mayor and former Democratic county chairman; Chris Loumakis, a former aide to former county supervisor Edison Miller, and Larry Agran, an Irvine city councilman.

The letter asks that the panel investigate the effects of Vietnamese gang activity on the Vietnamese community. Maram acknowledged that he is interested in uncovering any evidence that might shed light on what he perceives as Cooperman’s political assassination.

Evidence at Hearings

Maram states in the letter that national hearings indicate Orange County is the central location for Vietnamese gang activity and that “reportedly, these gangs are led by former high military and police officials of the deposed government of Vietnam.”

“There is also considerable evidence that several murders of Vietnamese nationals and U.S. citizens have been the result of this paramilitary activity in the United States,” the letter states. Cooperman’s colleagues believe he may have been killed by a paramilitary group.

Sumner said he considers the grand jury the proper body for such an investigation because its responsibility is to monitor issues that affect the Orange County community, and that it has broad investigative powers.

Sumner did not participate in any of the press conferences or meetings called by Cooperman friends during Lam’s two trials, the first of which ended in a mistrial because of a hung jury. But Sumner said he followed the case and has some concern whether allegations of a political murder are true.