Police Murders Orange County

Highlighting the fragility of a case that prosecutors once planned to drop, two witnesses testified at a preliminary hearing Tuesday that they lied to police when they implicated John J.C. Stephens in the killing of a Garden Grove officer six years ago. The two women--both admitted drug abusers at the time of Officer Howard E. Dallies Jr.'

After planning to dismiss charges against the man accused of killing a Garden Grove police officer six years ago, prosecutors said Monday they will move ahead with the case but left open the possibility of dropping the charges later. The Orange County district attorney's office resolved last week to set aside charges against John J.C. Stephens of Buena Park because of insufficient evidence, but it changed course after a lengthy meeting with police Friday, Deputy Dist. Atty. Rick King said.

As Garden Grove police met with prosecutors Friday in a last-ditch effort to persuade them to change course, relatives of slain police officer Howard E. Dallies Jr. struggled with the possibility that the man accused of killing the father of two might soon be released. For friends and family members such as Chuck Weaver, the four-year wait for an arrest in the 1993 killing proved excruciating. But nothing, Weaver said, matches the prospect that the murder charges filed against John J.C.

Citing a lack of evidence in a case intensely investigated for six years, prosecutors have told police they intend to drop charges against a man accused of slaying a Garden Grove patrolman, officials confirmed Thursday. John J.C. Stephens of Buena Park has spent two years in Orange County Jail awaiting trial while investigators tried to bolster their case--one based largely on circumstantial evidence--surrounding the fatal shooting of Officer Howard E. Dallies Jr.

Citing a lack of evidence, prosecutors have told police they intend to drop charges against a convicted burglar accused of slaying a Garden Grove patrolman during a late-night traffic stop six years ago, officials confirmed Thursday. John J.C. Stephens of Buena Park has spent two years in Orange County Jail awaiting trial while investigators tried to bolster their case--one based largely on circumstantial evidence--in the fatal shooting of Officer Howard E. Dallies.

A gang leader was convicted Friday of murdering a rookie California Highway Patrol officer during a 1996 traffic stop in Fullerton. Hung Thanh Mai, 28, was also found guilty of the special circumstance of murdering a peace officer in the performance of his duty, making him eligible for the death penalty, which prosecutors promised to pursue. Superior Court Judge Richard Weatherspoon handed down the verdict because Mai had waived his right to a jury trial.

Maurice Gerald Steskal, the Lake Forest man accused of killing an Orange County sheriff's deputy last month, entered a plea of not guilty at his arraignment on Monday, authorities said. The Orange County Grand Jury has charged the 39-year-old unemployed laborer with gunning down deputy Brad Riches outside a Lake Forest convenience store. If convicted, Steskal could face the death penalty.

In a move a prosecutor called "tantamount" to pleading guilty, a Vietnamese gang leader accused of killing a highway patrolman asked a judge today to decide his fate based on testimony from an earlier hearing. Hung Thanh Mai waived his right to a jury trial, and his lawyers submitted transcripts of testimony from his preliminary hearing to Orange County Superior Court Judge Richard Weatherspoon. The judge will issue a ruling next Friday.

The man accused of killing an Orange County sheriff's deputy last weekend was moved out of the County Jail on Friday after officials raised concerns that his presence there was creating an "uncomfortable" situation, authorities said. Maurice Gerald Steskal, 39, was transferred to Huntington Beach City Jail, where he will await his murder trial on charges that he gunned down Sheriff's Deputy Brad Riches in Lake Forest early June 12.

Those who knew him wept as they remembered Brad Riches, a police officer kind enough to treat jail inmates as his "customers" but tough enough to win a medal of courage for wrestling a gun away from a distraught man. Thousands who didn't know him came to mourn too. Members of Southern California's law enforcement community, they helped lay to rest someone slain for doing what they do every day.