Frustrated Over Delays, Judge Seeks to Speed Ng Murder Trial

A Superior Court judge said Friday that he wants to “break the circle” that has kept the mass-murder trial of Charles Ng in legal limbo for more than a decade.

During a pretrial hearing to determine who would represent Ng at a competency trial, Judge John J. Ryan made no attempt to hide his displeasure over the continual legal delays, which he described as “redundant” and “having very little to do with the underlying case.”

“Everything we do in this case seems to be a circle,” Ryan said. “We need to break the circle and start to move forward.”

At issue is whether or not the former Marine is mentally competent to stand trial for the murders of a dozen people in 1984 and 1985 in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Ng’s attorneys claim he is mentally incompetent, while the defendant insists that he is competent except for a mental illness that makes him unable to cooperate with his current lawyers.

Deputy public defenders William Kelley and James Merwin had asked that an attorney from the county’s alternate defender’s office represent Ng at the competency trial because they would have to testify against him at the trial and considered this to be a conflict of interest.

“Mr. Ng is out there holding the bag with no one to represent him,” Kelley said. “His interests and our interests are colliding.”

But Ryan was unswayed and ordered the public defenders to represent Ng at the competency trial, scheduled for late March or early April. The judge suspended criminal proceedings in the case and appointed psychiatrists to examine Ng and complete the reports by March 20.

Ryan also rejected Ng’s request to have an independent lawyer replace his current attorneys. Ng has made numerous motions since 1991 to replace his attorneys and at one point sought to represent himself.