Ramirez Hearing Pushed

To speed up the case of Night Stalker suspect Richard Ramirez, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office has requested a court hearing Thursday to pin down a firm date for a preliminary hearing. “The pace this case is going now, you’re not going to be into the preliminary hearing until spring, and that’s totally unacceptable,” said Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Gilbert Garcetti. “We are going to try to get a definite date--and hopefully it won’t be later than Dec. 13, and possibly earlier.” Defense counsel Arturo Hernandez, however, has contended that he and his co-counsel, who officially took over the case Oct. 24, will “definitely not” be prepared to begin in December. Ramirez, 25, a drifter originally from El Paso, was arrested in East Los Angeles on Aug. 31. But he did not enter his pleas--not guilty to 14 murder charges and 54 other felonies--until Oct. 24, primarily because of substitutions of defense attorneys at his request.