Judge’s Ruling Prompts Ng to Erupt in Court

Accused mass murderer Charles Ng, who has managed for 14 years to avoid trial for torture killings in Northern California, narrowly avoided a whack from a bailiff’s baton Thursday when he cursed an Orange County judge in a Santa Ana courtroom.

Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan had just denied Ng’s attorneys’ request to reopen arguments for a competency hearing, saying that ground had been covered many times, when Ng’s expletive-laden outburst occurred.

A marshal pulled his nightstick and drew back to strike, but the judge raised a hand. “That’s not necessary,” Ryan said. Two more marshals soon appeared in court, however.

After Ng’s angry comments, defense attorney Lewis Clapp pleaded again with Ryan to reopen the issue of Ng’s mental state. The defendant barely communicates with his attorneys, and he gets mad when he does, Clapp said.

“There has been no preparation . . . to get ready for the trial,” a frustrated Clapp said.

“I understand the dilemma,” Ryan told Clapp. “This is Mr. Ng’s doing. It’s not from mental illness. It’s Mr. Ng’s choice.”

Jury selection in the death-penalty trial is expected to last through October. An initial pool of 1,000 prospects has been whittled to about 200, the judge said.

Ng, 37, is charged with torturing and murdering a dozen people at a remote cabin in Calaveras County in the mid-1980s. Prosecutors allege he and Leonard Lake, who later committed suicide, abducted men and women from the San Francisco area to use as sex slaves.