Local News in Brief : Countywide : Judge to Hear Motion in Night Stalker Case

Orange County’s presiding Superior Court Judge, Phillip E. Cox, has been appointed by the California State Judicial Council to hear a motion in the case of Richard Ramirez, who is accused of being the Night Stalker. Ramirez’s lawyers have asked that the judge assigned to the trial be removed.

Cox is a good friend of California Supreme Court Justice Malcolm M. Lucas, chairman of the Judicial Council. However, Cox said Thursday that it is standard procedure for the presiding judge in Orange County to hear such cases in Los Angeles County, and vice versa.

The Ramirez lawyers claim that Superior Court Judge Michael A. Tynan is biased against the defense and should be replaced as the trial judge. Defense lawyers and the judge have been at odds over their numerous requests to delay the trial to give them more time to prepare.

Ramirez, 28, a self-proclaimed devil worshiper from El Paso, is charged with 13 murders in Los Angeles County. In Orange County, he faces trial on charges of attempted murder, rape and burglary involving an incident in Mission Viejo in 1985.

Cox said he will make the Ramirez case a priority, but will not issue a decision until the middle of next week.

The judge said he has received affidavits from Arturo Hernandez and Daniel Hernandez, the Ramirez attorneys, and from the Los Angeles county counsel’s office, representing Judge Tynan. But the defense will file additional papers today, Cox said.

Cox said he has heard nine other defense requests for a judge’s removal in Los Angeles County this year. Most of them, he said, are either frivolous or the defense lawyers erroneously believe that a judge’s rulings unfavorable to them are grounds for dismissal.

Cox said he cannot comment on the Ramirez case because he has not read all the documents filed by lawyers involved.