Judge Releases Transcripts in Ngor Murder Trial

A day after banning reporters from the courtroom where three men are being tried in the slaying of actor Haing Ngor, a judge Tuesday rescinded his ruling and made transcripts of the court proceedings available to the media.

In an unusual arrangement, separate juries have been impaneled for each of the defendants--Tak Sun Tan, 21, Jason Chan, 20, and Indra Lim, 20. The men are charged with robbing and murdering Ngor, 55, in his apartment’s carport two years ago.

Testimony will be presented to the juries simultaneously except during opening statements and closing arguments, when only the jury for each defendant will be present.

Judge J.D. Smith said he banned reporters during two sets of opening statements because he thought the prosecutor might refer to material that at least one jury should not hear.

Since the opening statements from the prosecution were virtually the same for all three defendants, Smith said he did not object to making the transcripts available Tuesday. Nonetheless, the judge said he stands by his ruling and reserves the court’s right to exercise its discretion.

In his opening statement, Deputy Dist. Atty. Craig Hum accused Tan, Lim and Chan of killing the Oscar-winning actor and human rights activist Feb. 25, 1996, during a robbery outside Ngor’s Beaudry Avenue apartment near Chinatown.

According to the prosecution, the defendants, members of a local gang called the Oriental Lazy Boys, were high on cocaine and looking for money with which to buy more drugs the night of the slaying.

They allegedly approached Ngor in his car as he returned from visiting a friend in Long Beach. They took his $6,000 Rolex watch, but when they demanded a 24-karat gold chain and locket, Ngor refused, Hum said. The locket contained a picture of Ngor’s wife, who died during the Cambodian war.

Chan then allegedly shot Ngor twice, once in the right leg and once in the chest.

Defense lawyers said in their opening statements that the prosecution’s case is weak, lacking any eyewitnesses or physical evidence.

“This is a murder without any eyewitness, not one,” Ivan Klein, Chan’s attorney, said in his opening statement.

Hum warned all three juries that some key witnesses would recant their statements to the police because they fear retaliation from the gang.

As the prosecutor predicted, Vireak Sarik, 26, testified that he did not recall what he had told police about the night of the slaying. On a taped statement to police that was later played for the juries, Sarik said he and a friend saw the three defendants on the night of the killing and gave them a ride from the crime scene.

Meanwhile, shortly after Smith removed his ban on reporters in the courtroom, a Santa Monica judge lifted his gag order in the trial of a man accused of stalking director Steven Spielberg.

Late Friday, Superior Court Judge Steven C. Suzukawa had taken the extraordinary step of ordering journalists not to report on an exchange that occurred in open court but outside the jury’s presence.

The gag order covered a discussion about the continued use of a security belt on defendant Jonathan Norman while he is in the courtroom, according to people present for the discussion. The judge feared that that information about the belt would prejudice the jury.

Suzukawa agreed to lift his gag order after reviewing a written legal challenge by media attorneys.