Santa Ana : Hearing Again Delayed in Night Stalker Case
An Orange County preliminary hearing for Night Stalker suspect Richard Ramirez was postponed a third time Tuesday, once more so his lawyers could appeal a decision to close the hearing to the public.
Ramirez, accused of 14 murders in Los Angeles County, is also charged with attempted murder and rape in Orange County in an attack in Mission Viejo on Aug. 25, 1985.
On Tuesday, Superior Court Judge Kathleen E. O’Leary upheld a Municipal Court ruling favoring the news media. Ramirez’s lawyers indicated they would appeal the decision to the 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana on Aug. 11.
Central Municipal Judge B. Tam Nomoto has rescheduled the preliminary hearing to Aug. 13.
Lawyers for the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register have sought the right to cross-examine witnesses in the closed-courtroom hearing. Ramirez’s three lawyers say news media attorneys only have the right to listen and to present arguments at that hearing.
The district attorney’s office usually argues for an open courtroom. But because his chief witness, the rape victim in the case, is “extremely fragile,” according to her therapist, Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. James G. Enright said, “I may have to end up asking for a closed courtroom, myself, whenever she testifies.”
Ramirez is scheduled to go on trial in Los Angeles Sept. 30, but his attorneys have said they may seek a postponement.
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