Ng’s Request to Ditch Public Defender OKd

In a move that could further delay the trial of accused serial killer Charles Ng, a Superior Court judge Friday granted Ng’s motion to remove the public defender from the case.

Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald, in a confidential hearing, named two private attorneys to assume Ng’s defense, five years after the defendant was brought to California and a dozen years after the first of his alleged crimes.

Orange County Public Defender Ronald Y. Butler said Friday that the judge’s decision “was no reflection on the competency of my office. It had to do with something else.”

He said he could not elaborate because the hearing was confidential. The transcripts were sealed.

Ng’s request to remove the Orange County Public Defender’s office is his fourth such motion since he was extradited to California from Canada in September 1991.

Ng, who will now be represented by attorneys Gary Pohlson and George Peters, is accused of torturing and murdering 12 people on a remote Calaveras County ranch in 1984 and 1985. One victim was Robin Scott Stapley, 25, of Orange County. Ng, who faces the death penalty, has pleaded not guilty.

The trial, expected to be the longest and most costly in California history, was transferred to Orange County after Ng’s Northern California lawyers complained that an impartial jury could not be convened. The state and Calaveras County are responsible for the costs.

Fitzgerald’s decision drew exasperation from Atty. Gen. Dan Lundgren, whose office filed a motion to stop it.

“How can I possibly convey to the victims’ families any sense of confidence in the criminal justice system when it repeatedly fails their interests by allowing Charles Ng to manipulate the system again and again?” Lundgren asked, in a news release Friday.

Lundgren said Ng had filed “dozens and dozens of time-consuming motions” that have delayed his trial.