Care Given Murder Case Helps Close Cultural Gap : Police work: Garden Grove detectives investigating brutal restaurant slayings painstakingly overcame the distrust in the Vietnamese community of officers.

It was a slight indiscretion--a flirtatious glance at a gang leader’s date. But the cost for Quy Nog Nguyen and his friend, Minh Luu, was extraordinary.

Both young men were shot to death as they dined inside My Nguyen Restaurant on Nov. 17, 1985. Wounded in the attack were the cafe’s owner, an employee and two other diners.

Ultimately, the fit of violence by five members of the Pomona Boys would become one of the most important criminal investigations for the Orange County Vietnamese community and its relationship with the Garden Grove Police Department that struggles to serve it.

Sensing the significance of the case beyond justice itself, Police Chief John Robertson set a high priority on the My Nguyen shooting and gave investigators the time to overcome cultural obstacles.

“It was a vicious, vicious crime, and it was particularly disruptive to everybody,” Robertson said. “I didn’t care if it took one week or 10 years, we were going to solve this case.”

Not only did Robertson want to apprehend the killers, he sought to breach the traditional mistrust the Vietnamese held for police and the lack of cooperation his officers regularly encountered on the street.

“The My Nguyen case was the first truly successful homicide case based on Vietnamese witnesses,” said Detective R.D. Shave, who was assigned to the shooting. “We believed the community was ready to cooperate, and we wanted to show the community that we were serious about serving them.”

The case began as many do in the Southeast Asian community--in silence. After the first day trying to question about 20 possible witnesses, police began to joke that everyone was in the cafe’s tiny restroom.

But over the next three years, Shave and his partner, Detective Glenn M. Overley, carefully courted about 10 witnesses by repeatedly going back to their homes and businesses. The more the Vietnamese got to know the officers personally, the more information they provided.

Using diagrams of the interior of the restaurant, both investigators tried to piece together when and where the potential witnesses sat during the shooting to help determine whether anyone was lying during interviews.

“We actually took physical evidence to confront some of them,” Overley said. “We’d say, ‘You sat here or there, so you must have seen something.’ ”

Because of the language barrier and an abundance of caution, investigators interviewed witnesses for five and six hours at a time, far longer than usually required for homicide cases. Overley and Shave also tried to determine whether potential witnesses had reasons not to cooperate.

Within a few months of the shooting, police received a break when a Vietnamese merchant told another detective about a woman who might have known one of the gunmen. Shave and Overley found Jennifer Dang about six months later.

Dang had been invited to the restaurant by one of the men finally arrested. Apparently, the flirting glance was meant for her, and she knew who ordered the shooting: Hung Ly, 23, of Fountain Valley.

Six people were finally arrested in January, 1988, including Ly, who was identified as the leader of the Pomona Boys.

After the criminal case was filed, Shave and Overley redoubled their effort to explain the court system to witnesses and tried to assure them that they were doing the right thing by testifying. Subpoenas were served personally, and the investigators often drove witnesses to court themselves to assure their arrival.

A major obstacle, the community’s traditional fear of retaliation, was overcome when the court refused to grant bail to the defendants. There were threats, however, and one person eventually pleaded guilty to assaulting a witness.

By early 1990, four young Vietnamese and a Cambodian had been convicted and sentenced to lengthy prison terms for first-degree murder, assault and conspiracy. The case had taken more than four years.

“The time it took was unusual for this kind of murder,” Shave said. “In any other community, we probably could have made the arrest in hours and have had the case done and ready for filing in six months.”

In the aftermath, detectives said, the Vietnamese community has become more forthcoming, at least with respect to homicide cases. Before the My Nguyen shooting, Garden Grove police had solved just two Vietnamese-related murders, Shave said. After it, eight were completed at least to the point of issuing arrest warrants for a suspect.

Today, the My Nguyen case is not really closed for Shave and Overley. They say they still call witnesses just to say hello and see whether any have been threatened.

“It is a tough stone for them to carry,” Shave said. “By making those phone calls, we hope they will tell their friends that it went OK for them and that the police cared.”

Occasionally, some of the witnesses even call them.