Mass Murder Trial Ordered Moved to O.C. : Courts: Judge cites extensive news coverage in transferring case of decade-old slayings from Northern California.

A Superior Court judge on Friday ordered the mass murder trial of Charles Ng transferred to Orange County, but gave defense lawyers 30 days to file an appeal.

Retired Siskiyou County Judge James Kleaver, who was assigned to the case by state legal authorities, said he shifted the long-delayed trial to Southern California because of extensive pretrial news coverage in the northern area.

Ng, 33, described as a martial arts expert, faces a dozen murder counts. Prosecutors contend that Ng, along with survivalist Leonard Lake, killed and tortured victims at a remote mountain house in Calaveras County, about 150 miles east of San Francisco.

Lake committed suicide with a cyanide capsule shortly after his June, 1985, arrest for shoplifting at a San Francisco-area store. Ng, who was with Lake at the time, escaped and fled to Canada, but was returned to the United States three years ago.

The state Judicial Council recommended that Ng’s trial be transferred to Sacramento or Orange County, and Kleaver said he favored Orange County.

“When I drove in here this morning, there were three television trucks from Sacramento. That gives you some indication of the interest of the Sacramento media in this case,” Kleaver said.

Kleaver is the latest in a series of judges who have conducted proceedings in the complex case. Others either withdrew because of potential conflicts or were successfully challenged by attorneys.

Ng, in an unusual arrangement, is being held in a maximum security section of Folsom Prison, about 40 miles to the north. He is taken to court proceedings in a prison van.

Security in the small Calaveras County courtroom was tight. Spectators were ordered to remove their shoes and belts before entering, and shotgun-toting deputies were inside the courtroom to provide security. Two armed deputies stood near Ng throughout the day.

Earlier in the day, retired Orange County Superior Court Judge Donald A. McCartin rejected Ng’s request for new lawyers, citing trial delays.

“The problem is, we may all be old and dead before this case comes to trial,” McCartin said.

Defense lawyer Ephraim Margolin of San Francisco opposed the change.

“This is just another mistake in a long series of mistakes in the prosecution in this case,” the attorney said.

But Calaveras County Dist. Atty. John E. Martin said: “We’ve wasted enough time. The people have a right for this case to move forward.”