Quest for Justice in Officer’s Death Moves to Court

The residents of Manhattan Beach have held candlelight vigils, built memorials around the city and waited nearly three years for the local courts to get their hands on the man accused of killing Police Officer Martin L. Ganz--the first local officer to be slain while on duty.

On Monday, Roger Hoan Brady, 30, appeared in Torrance Municipal Court to be arraigned on one count of murder with special circumstances in the shooting death of Ganz, 29, who was killed Dec. 27, 1993, while making a traffic stop near the Manhattan Village shopping mall.

But because Ganz had appeared in so many of the municipal judges’ courtrooms to testify about various cases, the arraignment was postponed to Aug. 19 and moved to Inglewood Municipal Court.

That did not lessen the drama and anguish that filled the second-floor courtroom where Pamela Ham, who had been engaged to Ganz, sat with her mother, sister-in-law and boyfriend in the front row while Ganz’s patrol partner, Neal O’Gilvy, sat in another front-row section with other police officers.

“It’s the beginning of the end for us to put it to rest,” said Gregg McMullin, a crime prevention officer with the Manhattan Beach Police Department. He was one of six police officers in the courtroom. “You’ll see throughout the trial that we’ll be represented by the officers and the wives of the officers in our department.”

But police officers know that a murder trial can be a long, drawn-out procedure.

“For us it’s not the last chapter yet. It’s the next to the last chapter. The last chapter will be when he is sentenced,” said Capt. John Hensley, who led the Police Department’s investigation into the murder in conjunction with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Ganz, a five-year veteran of the 60-member city police force, was shot at least three times by a motorist he pulled over for unknown reasons near the Bank of America building at the Manhattan Village shopping mall. As the gunman walked back toward his car after shooting Ganz in the head, he also pointed his semiautomatic weapon at the officer’s nephew, then 13 years old, who was on a ride-along. The nephew is expected to testify in the murder trial.

There is a black marble memorial to Ganz in front of the bank building. A potted pine with dusty Christmas decorations and a plastic black-and-white police car sit atop the plaque next to other potted plants.

In Live Oak Park there is a larger memorial. The officer’s helmet, glasses, keys and badge have been bronzed and placed on a pedestal surrounded by the words “Faith, Hope, Charity, Courage, Temperance, Wisdom and Justice.”

“It gave [the community] a vehicle to express their feelings,” said Steve Guidone, a dentist who helped raise $16,000 for the memorial.

“It was obviously a very traumatic occurrence in Manhattan Beach,” said Mayor Pro Tem Joan Jones. “The fact that we will be able to come to trial here is a very good thing for the community.”