Alleged Serial Killer Captured : Courts: California may be among up to six states seeking custody.

No sooner was Glen Edward Rogers arrested in Kentucky than Los Angeles prosecutors took the first step Monday toward bringing him back to California to face a murder charge in Van Nuys--perhaps beginning a complicated legal waltz with as many as five other states.

“We filed notice of extradition today,” Los Angeles district attorney’s office spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said. “It ultimately will be the decision of a judge in Kentucky where to send him. It’s hard to say what will happen.”

Rogers has also been charged with murder in Mississippi and Florida. Louisiana authorities are in the process of adding a murder charge in that state. In addition, authorities in Ohio and Kentucky are looking into the death of a former roommate of Rogers who disappeared in Ohio and was found dead in Kentucky.

By filing notice, the Los Angeles district attorney’s office launched a complicated interstate legal procedure that could take any number of turns under an interstate pact known as the Uniform Criminal Extradition Act, according to Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenson.

The outcome depends on a number of variables, including whether Rogers resists or agrees to his return to California, legal experts say.

On Oct. 17, Van Nuys Municipal Judge Alice E. Altoon issued a no-bail warrant charging Rogers with murder in the Sept. 29 strangulation death of Sandra Gallagher, a woman he met at a Van Nuys bar. That made California the first state to charge him with murder, but that doesn’t guarantee Rogers will come to California first.

Depending on how many states file extradition notices, Deputy District Atty. Lea P. D’Agostino, who has been assigned the Rogers case at the Van Nuys courthouse, may well be standing in a very long line.

Normally, under the provisions of the interstate pact, the state that has the suspect in custody has first crack at bringing him to trial, the experts said.

But although Kentucky authorities are investigating Rogers in connection with the 1993 death of an elderly roommate, they have no outstanding warrants against him, so Rogers was held overnight on reckless-driving charges stemming from his attempt to flee. Once that’s settled, it’s anyone’s bet.

Under the interstate pact, it is up to each state that wants custody of Rogers to present its case to the judge assigned to his case in Kentucky, who then has the authority to rule on where he goes next--unless Rogers chooses to fight extradition to that state.

“He could waive extradition to some jurisdictions, or to one, and refuse to waive to others,” said Barbara J. Moore, chief of extradition services for the Los Angeles district attorney’s office.

If Rogers refuses to waive extradition to California, then the governors’ offices in California and Kentucky become involved, with the ultimate authority resting with the governor of Kentucky.