Stalker Hearing Postponed 2nd Time
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The Orange County preliminary hearing for Night Stalker suspect Richard Ramirez was postponed for a second time Tuesday so his attorneys can appeal a judge’s decision to let two lawyers representing newspapers participate in a debate over whether to close the courtroom.
Attorneys for Ramirez, charged with attempted murder and rape in a Mission Viejo robbery, argue that publicity generated from coverage of his preliminary hearing could affect his chances of getting a fair trial later.
But lawyers for the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register argue that Ramirez’s case has attracted so much interest that the public has a right to follow the criminal proceedings.
Central Municipal Judge B. Tam Nomoto in Santa Ana ruled in favor of the two newspaper lawyers in a meeting in her chambers Tuesday. Ramirez’s lawyers said they would appeal, then arranged a hearing in Superior Court for next Tuesday before Judge Kathleen E. O’Leary. The preliminary hearing in Nomoto’s court on the charges of rape and attempted murder is to resume that afternoon.
Ramirez is charged with 14 murders in Los Angeles County and is scheduled to go on trial there Sept. 30. His attorneys said earlier that they did not expect his preliminary hearing to interfere with that trial date, but they did not expect the hearing to stretch into August either.
The hearing was originally scheduled to begin July 14, but Ramirez’s lawyers were granted a one-week postponement to make additional preparations. The issue of whether to close the courtroom has further delayed the preliminary hearing.
Ramirez’s lawyers also requested that his preliminary hearing in Los Angeles be closed to the public. But many lawyers representing news media objected, and the hearing remained open.
Arturo Hernandez, one of Ramirez’s lawyers, said Tuesday that the news media lawyers at the Los Angeles hearing were given a chance to speak at the end of a hearing on closing the courtroom, and he said he did not object to that.
But in Orange County, the lawyers representing newspapers are not content to wait until the end, he said, they want to actively participate in the hearing.
“In Orange County, Mr. Ramirez’s lawyers want to put on witnesses on the closed courtroom issue,” said Nancy E. Richman, attorney for The Times. “They didn’t do that in the L.A. case. If they’re going to have witnesses, we want the right to cross-examine them, issue objections and put on our own witnesses, if necessary.”
The Ramirez lawyers expect to call a psychiatrist and a psychologist to testify about the impact publicity could have on Ramirez’s right to a fair trial.
Ramirez is accused of breaking into the home of William Carns and his fiancee on Aug. 25, 1985. Carns was shot in the head three times but is recovering at a clinic in Texas. His fiancee is expected to be the key witness against Ramirez at the preliminary hearing.
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