‘A Landmark Case’ : Successful ‘Infiltration’ of Viet Community Cited

Because a young man looked the wrong way at a young woman, prosecutors say, three gunmen walked into a Vietnamese restaurant in Garden Grove in 1985 and opened fire, killing two people and wounding four.

But prosecutors add that the wrong-look incident also may have been an excuse. The Pomona Boys, they say, were looking for a chance to display their power in the Vietnamese community.

Five Vietnamese and one Cambodian, including the alleged leader of the Pomona Boys, now are facing murder charges at a preliminary hearing in West Municipal Court in Westminster.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeoffrey L. Robinson calls it “a landmark case” for Orange County.

“It’s the first time the police have been able to really infiltrate the Vietnamese community,” Robinson said. “We know now we can police a community that before we had no control over.”

Robinson said “superb” efforts for three years by Garden Grove police investigators Ron Shave and Glenn Overley helped turn up enough witnesses to break the case. But the prosecutor says the investigation, which is ongoing, is hampered by threats to some witnesses and a reluctance by others to turn against their fellow Vietnamese, either because of fear or cultural ties.

The six now are accused of varying degrees of participation in the Nov. 17, 1985, shooting spree in the crowded My Nguyen Restaurant in a small Brookhurst Street shopping center. If Judge Dennis Choate orders them to stand trial, and if they are convicted of double murder, the six could face automatic sentences of life in prison without parole.

While infiltrating the closed Vietnamese community was a problem for investigators, the sheer numbers involved in this case are a problem for both the defense and the court.

Also, defense attorneys fear that an Orange County jury may take a look at the six and be so intimidated that the jurors will convict them all without looking at the evidence against them individually.

“Hardly anyone in this county did not have a loved one of some kind who served in the Vietnam War,” said Santa Ana attorney William M. Monroe, who represents one of the six. “I think we face a serious problem of conscious or unconscious bias, especially when jurors see six of these fellows sitting there together.”

Prosecutors claim that two of the defendants, Hung Ly, 22, of Fountain Valley and Dat Tien Phan, 19, of Santa Ana, went to the restaurant with two young women and one of the women’s brothers shortly after midnight.

At the restaurant, prosecutors say, another man, 25-year-old Quy Ngoc Nguyen of Long Beach, began to stare at one of the women, named Jennifer.

Proper Respect

“Hung Ly is very hung up on respect,” Robinson said in explaining the prosecution’s case. “He was also sweet on this girl. When Quy began staring (Jennifer) down, Hung Ly saw it as someone not paying him proper respect.”

According to one prosecution witness, first Dat Phan and then Hung Ly made telephone calls after that. Robinson claims they were putting out orders to the Pomona Boys, their gang, to come to the restaurant.

Within minutes, a group of nearly 10 people arrived outside the restaurant, witnesses say.

According to the prosecution’s case, Hung Ly left the restaurant after giving orders that Quy Ngoc Nguyen be killed.

The gunmen killed Quy Ngoc Nguyen, plus another man with him, Minh Luu, 23, of Sunnymead. Four people, including the restaurant manager, were hit by gunfire scattered around the room.

‘Just Went Crazy’

“The gunmen apparently just went crazy shooting up the place,” one of the defense lawyers said.

Dat Phan and a third defendant, Ninh Xuan Nguyen, 23, of Santa Ana, are accused by at least one prosecution witness of being among the actual shooters. The third gunmen, prosecutors say, is a bald-headed Vietnamese man known only as Kojak. Police have been unable to find him.

A fourth defendant, Hour Kheng Chour, 20, of Santa Ana, is accused of being the driver of the getaway car. The other two--Khanh Quan Nguyen, 19, of Costa Mesa and Thanh Van Nguyen, 20, of Santa Ana--are named by some witnesses as participants but not actual gunmen.

Monroe, who represents Ninh Nguyen, accused as one of the gunmen, said he will try to get a separate trial for his client.

“I’m afraid that when jurors hear the evidence, my guy will simply be washed down the drain with some of the others,” he said.

Diverse Interests

It’s clear that the defense lawyers all have diverse interests on behalf of their clients.

Last week, for example, Joel W. Baruch of Newport Beach, called a witness who gave a different description of the getaway car from a prosecution witness. But Baruch’s witness was also highly damaging to three other defendants. He said that two of them, Dat Phan and Khanh Nguyen, beat him up in an attempt to keep him from testifying, and that a third--Monroe’s client, Ninh Nguyen--told him to keep quiet about what he knew.

Dat Phan has a separate problem. All six defendants have denied their involvement. But Phan, sitting in a police car after his arrest, told another defendant in Vietnamese, “I got my target.” Phan was unaware that the conversation was secretly being tape-recorded.

Amador L. Corona of Santa Ana, Phan’s attorney, says unhappily that the statement is “very very incriminating against my client.”

The preliminary hearing is expected to finish by Thursday. But so far it has taken nearly two weeks just to get through four witnesses.

It takes 29 people to be ready just to get a day’s hearing started.

Many Players

Besides the courtroom personnel, there are seven attorneys (one defendant has two), plus the prosecutor and investigators, six defendants, four interpreters for the defense plus one interpreter for witnesses.

“Some witnesses have been interviewed by police as many as seven times,” Robinson said. “When you have each attorney going through each police report, with five interpreters talking at the same time, it’s extremely difficult just to put on a case like this.”

One issue at the trial may be how much evidence Robinson can present that it was a gang killing.

Although some witnesses describe Hung Ly as leader of the Pomona Boys--who use the name because some of them had gone to school in that city--some of the defense lawyers claim their clients were not even part of that gang.

Randolph K. Driggs of Santa Ana, who represents the principal defendant, Hung Ly, says there is no proof that a Pomona Boys gang even exists.

‘Farfetched’ Theory

“The prosecution’s theory that this was somehow a power play by a gang appears to be to be pretty farfetched,” Driggs said.

But Robinson said that based on police information, he believes the Pomona Boys “wanted to let the community know they were capable of doing business.”

Robinson added that some of the defendants see themselves not as gang members, but as gangsters.

“We have an informant who tells us some of these guys see themselves as Al Capone,” Robinson said. “This case is a throwback to the ‘30s and ‘40s.”