Hearing Can Proceed : Court Rejects Ramirez Move to Block Media

A state appellate court refused Thursday to bar newspaper attorneys from questioning witnesses in a hearing on Night Stalker suspect Richard Ramirez’s bid to close his court proceedings to the public.

Ramirez, accused of 14 murders in Los Angeles County, is also charged with attempted murder and rape in an attack on a sleeping Mission Viejo couple on Aug. 25, 1985.

Without comment, the 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana denied Ramirez’s request to postpone his preliminary hearing in the Orange County case until the appellate panel could conduct its own hearing on the issue of whether newspapers shall be allowed to participate.

However, Municipal Judge B. Tam Nomoto, who previously ruled he would allow newspaper attorneys to question witnesses, added a new twist Thursday. Nomoto ruled that questioning of defense witnesses on the closed-courtroom issue would take place in the judge’s chambers on Tuesday, while media attorneys wait outside and submit their cross-examination questions in writing to a court clerk or bailiff.

Nancy Richman, attorney for the Los Angeles Times, said the newspaper will file objections to that procedure. Paul Freeman, attorney for the Orange County Register, had argued that an in-chambers hearing was unnecessary, but accepted the decision.

Freeman said that Nomoto will use the in-chambers hearing to determine whether the witnesses’ testimony should be given in open court, where newspaper attorneys would be able to cross-examine witnesses face to face.

Meanwhile, defense lawyers said Thursday that they would appeal the issue of the newspaper attorneys’ involvement in the closed-courtroom debate to the California Supreme Court.

They also identified their witnesses on the pre-trial publicity issues as psychiatrist Paul Blair and psychologist Paul Strand.

Blair is scheduled to testify that publicity about the Night Stalker case caused public hysteria; Strand is expected to present results of an opinion survey he conducted in Orange County about the Night Stalker case and the defendant.