Ramirez Defense: Publicity Effect Cited

The soft-spoken man in the carefully pressed suit sat behind his desk in the Criminal Courts Building, reflecting on the difficult task that lies ahead.

“The publicity is so intense . . . so intense and so constant over so many days, even weeks,” said Allen R. Adashek, 42, the veteran Los Angeles County deputy public defender who will represent Richard Ramirez, the man accused of being the Night Stalker.

“It really is a problem. A major problem,” he said.

Adashek revealed in an interview Thursday that he has not decided whether he will try to move Ramirez’s trial to another county to offset the impact of the massive media coverage.

But he added, with a hint of resignation, that even if a judge were to grant such a request, it might not do much good. News of the Night Stalker case and Ramirez’s arrest last Saturday in East Los Angeles has been prominently featured in newspaper, television and radio reports across the nation.

“Where can you wind up in a situation where people haven’t already made up their minds?” he asked.

Adashek, who parts his black hair neatly in the middle, began representing indigent defendants for the county 16 years ago, immediately after he graduated from UCLA Law School. His boss, chief deputy public defender David Meyer, described him as a “very senior lawyer who has handled a lot of heavy cases. He certainly knows his way around the system.”

Although Adashek has represented his share of murder defendants, he has not yet shepherded a death penalty case through the conclusion of a trial, he said.

Adashek said he has spent about an hour talking to his client, a 25-year-old drifter originally from El Paso, Tex., who is being held in a high-security section of the Los Angeles County Jail. The attorney also said he has been in contact with Ramirez’s relatives in El Paso, but declined to elaborate.

Ramirez was charged Tuesday with one count of murder and seven other felonies stemming from two early morning attacks in May in the San Gabriel Valley. Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner has said that more charges may be filed in coming weeks.

San Francisco authorities have charged Ramirez with a second murder, and with attempted murder, robbery and burglary. Orange County prosecutors have said they expect to file charges against him in connection with a shooting last month in Mission Viejo.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the Los Angeles Police Department have said that Ramirez may be implicated in as many as 15 other killings and perhaps two dozen assaults, robberies and burglaries.

Adashek said the announcement Wednesday by Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates of the latest murder attributed to the suspected Night Stalker was an illustration of the difficulty he faces in defending Ramirez.

“Now everybody assumes . . . that he’s guilty of that too, that this is another murder he committed,” Adashek said.

It will be difficult, the defense attorney said, to find 12 jurors who will be able to judge his client’s guilt or innocence solely on evidence presented in court.

“Talking (in the media) about what’s going to be presented (at trial) is oftentimes very different than what happens in court,” he said.

Negative Results

Referring to the police, Adashek said: “I’m aware that they have a job to do, and their interests are certainly different from mine, and maybe from the court’s too. All I can say is, whatever is responsible or not responsible, the effect of this massive publicity can be very negative in terms of a fair trial.”

Cmdr. William Booth, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department, said he believes the department has been responsible in its release of information about Ramirez.

“We are cognizant of the need not to discuss specific evidence and not to discuss admissions and confessions,” Booth said. At Gates’ press conference, Booth said, “We (were) simply letting something be known a little earlier than it would if we waited until he was publicly charged with the crime. We were simply acknowledging the kind of information that would be in the public domain.”

Law enforcement sources have told The Times that Ramirez has not confessed to any of the Night Stalker crimes.

Preparation for Hearing

It is far too early to tell when a jury will hear the evidence and decide whether Ramirez is guilty, Adashek said. The attorney said he is still receiving from authorities the police reports and other documents he needs to prepare for Ramirez’s preliminary hearing.

The hearing, to be held in Los Angeles Municipal Court, will allow a judge to determine if the district attorney’s office has enough evidence to hold Ramirez for trial.

Although he has been arraigned on the eight felony charges filed in Los Angeles County, Ramirez has yet to enter pleas. He is next due in court Monday.