Ramirez’s New Lawyer Seeks Change of Venue

An attorney who will help defend Night Stalker suspect Richard Ramirez said Monday he intends to request that the trial be transferred from Los Angeles in an attempt to ensure an unbiased proceeding.

Manuel Barraza, interviewed by telephone from El Paso, said he had been retained by Ramirez’s family. He was to fly Monday evening to Los Angeles to meet with his client, one or more local attorneys and the public defender assigned to the case.

“The first step would be to get it (the trial) out of Los Angeles,” Barraza said. “We’ll definitely explore the possibility of going outside the state. . . . There’s just been too much adverse pretrial publicity. It’s almost like, in the eyes of the public, he’s guilty.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Sterling E. Norris, who heads the prosecutor’s special trials unit, said Monday, however, that there is no authority under California law to move Ramirez’s trial out of the state. He said the only transfer possible would be to another county in California.

California authorities believe that Ramirez committed as many as 15 slayings and 21 assaults, kidnapings and rapes in a rampage that may have begun with a murder in June, 1984.

An El Paso native who spent much of the last five years in California, Ramirez, 25, is formally charged with one count of murder and seven other felonies in Los Angeles County. San Francisco authorities have charged him with murder, attempted murder, burglary and robbery. He is being held without bail in Los Angeles County Jail.

Barraza, 30, said that, based on news reports, defending Ramirez resembles a “Mission Impossible” assignment.

“It’s going to be tough . . . (but) I haven’t seen anything that concretely connects him to the murders,” the lawyer said.

Barraza said that because he can practice law only in Texas, he will work with a California lawyer, yet to be retained. He also expressed hope that a second El Paso attorney would join him in the case.

Appearance in Court

Ramirez, clad in a blue jail jump suit, appeared Monday in Los Angeles Municipal Court for the second time since his arrest Aug. 31. Ramirez stood with his head erect and did not try to hide his face from photographers as he did at last Tuesday’s court appearance.

Judge Elva R. Soper again postponed formal entry of his pleas and set a new court date of Sept. 27. Soper ruled at the request of Deputy Public Defender Allen Adashek, who later said he wants more time to review police reports and other documents connected with the case.

The prosecutor, Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. P. Philip Halpin, said outside the courtroom Monday that “it is almost certain” that he will file additional charges against Ramirez on or before Sept. 27.

Barraza said he conferred by phone with Adashek on Monday morning and requested that no plea be entered. Adashek confirmed that he spoke with Barraza, but he declined to discuss details of the conversation. The deputy public defender noted that he will officially remain Ramirez’s attorney until a judge appoints a new one.

Attorney’s Concern

Adashek said authorities who have congratulated citizens for catching Ramirez have made it more difficult for Ramirez to receive a fair trial.

“I think it’s bothersome when public officials make statements that appear to presume the guilt of a person who has only been arrested and charged with a crime and hasn’t even entered a plea yet,” he said.

After a ceremony Friday honoring the men who captured Ramirez, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley commented: “We don’t need to wait for an arbitrary legal process to run its course before handing out the rewards. . . . We’re satisfied that based on the evidence, we have the right man.”

On Monday, Bradley released copies of a letter to various elected and law enforcement officials around the state in which he called for creation of a committee “to develop uniform criteria for selection of individuals eligible for reward monies.”

“The committee would consist of a representative from each governmental jurisdiction which offered reward money associated with the Night Stalker crimes,” Bradley said. “It is my hope that we can reward those citizens who were courageous enough to assist law enforcement agencies in apprehending a Night Stalker suspect as expeditiously as possible.”

Talk of handing out reward money to the East Los Angeles citizens who captured Ramirez “is one of the things that makes it sound like the case is over,” Adashek said.

“Here we are, we haven’t even entered a plea, and they’re dispensing reward money and giving certificates,” the attorney said. “If you see some of the news stories, you’d think that the case was over, when, in fact, it hasn’t even begun.”

Barraza said that Ramirez’s sister, Rosa Flores, asked on behalf of the family that he enter the case. The lawyer said he has never met Ramirez but that he has previously represented “some of his neighbors.”

Asked how he would be paid for his work, Barraza said that “the family is not well off at all” and that “most of it is going to be volunteer.”

“They’re trying to set up a legal defense fund for him here in El Paso,” he said.

Source of Money

“If there’s any possibility of someone being interested in the story, that would sure help finance the defense,” he added.

Should part of the legal fees eventually be met through sale of book or movie rights, “I think they would be dealing with me,” Barraza said.

“But I’ve never had a situation like this before,” the attorney added. “We are not allowed to do that in Texas, but I understand it is allowed in California.”

Barraza, a graduate of the School of Law at the University of Texas in Austin, said he has previously defended several murder suspects but has never before handled a potential death penalty case.

He described the Ramirez case as “so complex” that he “might have to move to California.”