Jurors Sought for Long, Difficult Ng Trial

In what is expected to be a long and arduous task, jury selection began Monday in the long-awaited Orange County trial of accused torturer-murderer Charles Ng.

Ng, who faces the death penalty, is charged with slaying a dozen people at a Calaveras County cabin in the mid-1980s.

His trial was transferred to Orange County because pretrial publicity may have tainted the jury pool in Northern California.

Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan interviewed 405 prospective jurors Monday morning and dismissed those who have financial, health or other hardships that would prevent them from sitting through a trial estimated to last from six to nine months.

Over the next two weeks, Ryan is expected to interview as many as 3,240 residents, one of the largest jury pools ever in the county.

“It is very difficult for individuals to be off work for that long when they do not get paid,” said Pat Hill, assistant executive officer for the court’s jury services.

Hill said a typical Orange County criminal case lasts three to seven days and requires a jury pool of about 45 people.

Ryan selected 75 jurors Monday to return Oct. 13 for the next phase: detailed questioning to explore biases and other matters. The judge wants to have 200 to 300 qualified jurors available to return next month.

Jury expert Norman M. Garland in Los Angeles, a Southwestern University School of Law professor, said it is common to have a limited number of people able to serve in lengthy, complex cases, but it does not necessarily pose a big problem.

“It is a fairly narrow population that would be able to serve,” he said. “Those who are likely to qualify are those who are not employed or work for the government.” Retirees also are likely jurors in long cases.

Despite a limited jury pool, he said, “there is still a diversity of people.”

Jurors also will have to be able to steel themselves to view the evidence, which includes videotapes that Ng and his partner allegedly took of the tortures.

Prosecutors charge that Ng, 37, and Leonard Lake tortured and killed at least 12 people in 1984 and 1985 on Lake’s property in the Sierra foothills of Calaveras County. Lake, who was arrested on an unrelated charge, confessed to the crimes and later killed himself.

Ng fled to Canada, where he was captured in June 1985. He fought extradition for six years, but was finally transferred to California. His case has since been delayed by myriad circumstances, including numerous motions filed by Ng to postpone the trial and to move it out of Northern California.