JUDGE IN NG MURDER CASE ACCUSED OF BIAS.

Byline: Associated Press 

Public defenders claim a biased Orange County judge is keeping them off the Charles Ng murder case, a decision that could cost taxpayers millions.

Superior Court Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald removed the Public Defender's Office from the case Aug. 2 at Ng's request. Ng changed his mind a week later, but Fitzgerald refused to change his ruling.

Both prosecutors and Richard Schwartzberg, Ng's new attorney, want the public defenders back on the case, mostly because they have already done much of the groundwork.

``The money we've been paying to the public defender is wasted at this point,'' said Brent Harrington, administrator for Calaveras County, where the murders took place. ``One would have to assume the new attorney is going to want to start over.''

Ng, 35, is accused of torturing and killing a dozen people in 1984 and 1985 at a hideaway in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

He was arrested in 1985 after fleeing to Canada, where he fought extradition for six years until Canada's Supreme Court ordered him released to California authorities.

The trial was moved to Orange County last year on grounds that media reports made a fair trial impossible in Calaveras County.

Along with the case, the public defenders got six tons of files, including 300 boxes and 16 drawers stuffed with investigative reports.

Deputy Public Defender William G. Kelley said he and his staff spent the past 13 months sorting through 58,000 pages of documents and establishing a computer database. They expected to be ready for trial in September 1997.

``We received it in an absolute mess. It was in a shambles,'' Kelley said. ``The new lawyers aren't going to receive it that way, I can guarantee you. That's assuming they stay on the case.''

Kelley has filed three motions to remove Fitzgerald.

``The court was not only openly biased against (Kelley), it acted on that bias in granting Ng's request in order to punish his counsel,'' Deputy Public Defender James G. Merwin wrote to the state Supreme Court.

Schwartzberg also asked the Supreme Court to reappoint a public defender.

Fitzgerald, from the bench, has denied he is biased. He was on vacation this week.

Ng has tried to disqualify virtually every defense attorney and judge associated with his case, so the latest twist was disappointing to many, surprising to few.

``I think everyone expects by the time this is done it will be the most expensive trial in California,'' Harrington said.

A special state fund helps Calaveras County pay case costs. State law prohibits disclosure of details, but most of the more than $2 million sent to Orange County in the past year has gone into Ng's defense, said Harrington.

``Everyone's disgusted,'' Harrington said. ``It just seems a mockery of the process. As a local citizen, we're all appalled how the system seems to work. It's 10 years after the crime and it doesn't seem we're any closer to seeing something happen in court.''

Dwight and Lola Stapley of Garden Grove didn't find fault with the judge, but they were concerned, too. Their son Scott was allegedly one of Ng's victims.

``Dwight just turned 70 and I just turned 68 and the chance we will live to see Ng go to the gas chamber is 50-50,'' Lola Stapley said.