Charges Against Suspect in Woman’s Death Dismissed a 2nd Time

An 18-year-old transient who was accused of killing a Los Angeles police officer’s wife in Orange County was freed from jail Wednesday after murder charges against him were dismissed for the second time.

Scott Michael Katzin, whose family lives in Pomona, was released from Orange County Jail shortly after Municipal Judge Robert B. Hutson told prosecutors that they had failed to present enough evidence to hold Katzin for trial.

On July 28, Municipal Judge Daniel T. Brice dismissed similar charges against Katzin, but prosecutors refiled them before Katzin could be released.

Prosecutors said Wednesday that they still have not given up.

Assistant Dist. Atty. Edgar A. Freeman said in court that he will ask for a Superior Court review of Hutson’s decision.

Also, Katzin has been ordered to appear before the Orange County Grand Jury on Tuesday, which is conducting its own investigation of the woman’s death.

Katzin’s attorney, Ronald P. Kreber, said outside the courtroom that “there’s still a long way to go in this thing.”

Katzin was arrested two weeks after the April 22, disappearance of Maria Andrea Malmgreen, a 38-year-old mother of two from Brea whose husband Russell is a judicial liaison officer for the Los Angeles Police Department.

Mrs. Malmgreen’s body was found April 29 in the back seat of her abandoned car in Fullerton. She had been robbed, sexually assaulted and strangled.

Katzin was living at Craig Park in Fullerton, which is where police believe Mrs. Malmgreen may have been attacked. He was arrested after he identified a photo of Mrs. Malmgreen as a woman he had seen sexually assaulted and beaten in the park on the morning of April 22. Katzin denied participating in the assault, but Fullerton police arrested him.

When he dismissed the case, Brice said he believed that Katzin may have “fantasized” seeing the attack.

Hutson gave no opinion except to say that he considered the evidence against Katzin “insufficient.”