Court’s Pace Drags Along Entire Family

Karen Lynch of Santa Ana had been told that by the first anniversary of her son Tim’s death, his confessed killer would be brought to trial. By the second anniversary, she was told the same thing.

Today marks the third anniversary of her son’s shooting. And finally, this was the week prosecutors expected his killer’s trial to begin.

Except it was postponed again, at the defense’s request, until May. And that’s not a solid date either.

So the monster will perch on Karen Lynch’s shoulder a while longer. That’s what this waiting is like, she says, “like a monster looming over your life.”

Most surviving family members of violent acts will tell you that you become the victim twice--first by the criminal, then by the court system.

Actually, three years is not an inordinate amount of time for a murder case to get to trial in California. But it should be.

Something ought to change.

The Lynch case happens to be in San Bernardino County, where the shooting occurred. But it could be anywhere in this state.

The double tragedy for Karen Lynch is that her son’s killer was his own father. A whole family destroyed. It will take a jury trial to sort out what exactly happened.

The Lynches owned a second home in Hesperia. They lived mostly in Orange County, but work situations forced them to split their time between the two homes. She works in computer program management here; her husband, Michael, was a registered nurse in Loma Linda.

Their son Shawn, 22 then, was away in the Navy and son Tim, 19, attended a community college, preparing for a career as a firefighter.

On March 25, 1996, Tim got his report card--a perfect 4.0, highest in his class. Karen Lynch was teaching a computer class in Chicago at the time. Tim was at their home in Hesperia, celebrating his good grades with a friend when his father walked in.

Somehow an argument broke out. The father, Michael Lynch, has written in court papers that he sent the friend away. Only Michael Lynch is a living witness to what happened next.

He claims his son Tim called him names, then attacked him with a chair.

“I never wanted to kill my own son!” he wrote in one letter to Karen, now in court papers. And in another: “Tim threatened my safety and I reacted--overreacted. I wanted to protect myself, not kill him.”

Prosecutors don’t see it as self-defense. Tim Lynch was shot five times. Michael Lynch is charged with first-degree murder in his son’s death.

The first trial delays came because attorneys assigned on one side or the other had other pending cases. Later, there were delays because of numerous bail hearings.

Michael Lynch was finally granted bail of $75,000 in the summer of 1997. His mother put up her house to post it.

Then came the restraining order disputes. Once her husband was out on bail, Karen Lynch won the restraining order to cover herself, Shawn and her own parents. In November 1997, Michael Lynch was charged by the Orange County district attorney’s office with five counts of violating the restraining order. An arrest warrant was issued, but nobody could find Lynch.

Then came what would seem a comedy of errors, if anywhere but a murder case. San Bernardino prosecutors wanted to use the Orange County charges to get Lynch’s bail revoked in the murder case. But the day of the hearing in January 1998, authorities from San Bernardino failed to pick up a copy of the arrest warrant from Orange County.

“In the age of faxes, it’s just unbelievable that could happen,” said Shawn Lynch, now a student at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa.

As a result of the mishap, the San Bernardino bail was not revoked.

In February 1998, the arrest warrant over the restraining order violations caught up with Lynch, and he was back in jail. But he soon made bail, this time just $2,500, from the Orange County Jail, He pleaded guilty and was given a six-month sentence. But that sentence was postponed until after his San Bernardino trial.

And when will that take place? San Bernardino County Deputy Public Defender Michael Kennedy says essentially it’s when he decides he’s ready.

“Some murder cases take six years to get to trial,” he said. “We’re still investigating. I’m still talking to expert witnesses. We’ll go to trial whenever I believe I can give my client a maximum defense.”

Kennedy is more than a little incensed that Karen Lynch is talking to the media.

“I appreciate her angst, I know she’s lost a son,” Kennedy said. “But we’re not going to move this trial along at her pace. She is not a party to this case.”

And that’s the part that’s so hard for crime victims to understand. They aren’t an official party to the proceedings. They’re just interested bystanders. And that’s how they get treated.

Why couldn’t Kennedy have reached these experts, or completed his office’s investigation, within three years? Frankly, Kennedy points out, what’s involved in that process “is not the public’s business.”

Karen Lynch is beginning to keep score: five deputy district attorneys assigned to this case so far, and she’s appeared before eight different judges--with more than 30 hearing dates set.

So she’ll wait until May for the next court update. In the meantime, she’ll march on April 18 with others in her support group, Parents of Murdered Children, at a candlelight vigil to honor their dead.

The annual vigil will take place at Memory Garden Memorial Park in Brea. There’s a marker there as a tribute to murdered children, surrounded by plaques to commemorate the family victims by name--258 names so far, 17 more will be added next month.

I read through the dozens of letters Michael Lynch wrote to Karen Lynch from his jail cell after the shooting. One line stood out that all involved agree on: “Ten seconds or less have changed our lives.”

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Monday and Thursday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling (714) 564-1049 or e-mail at jerry.hicks@latimes.com.