At the Lake: Alleged serial killer has first hearing at Tahoe

A convicted murderer authorities believe killed a South Lake Tahoe teen in 1989 made his first appearance in a South Shore courtroom Thursday.

Joseph Nissensohn, 57, appeared in El Dorado County Superior Court in South Lake Tahoe after Judge Douglas Phimister ruled June 13 that Nissensohn should stand trial on the South Shore.

Nissensohn now is housed in El Dorado County's South Lake Tahoe Jail.

During Thursday's hearing before Judge Suzanne Kingsbury, Prosecutor Dale Gomes said he intends to file a motion to have the trial moved back to Placerville.

Gomes said he plans to dispute Phimister's contention that the only party with an interest in having the case heard in Placerville is the El Dorado County District Attorney's Office.

The motion is likely to include a list of witnesses, Gomes said.

The prosecutor also said he intends to amend the criminal charges against Nissensohn to include the slayings of two teenage girls in Monterey County in 1981.

In February - a month before Nissensohn was set to be released after serving a 15-year prison sentence for the 1990 murder of a woman in Washington state - El Dorado County prosecutors charged Nissensohn with the 1989 murder of 15-year-old South Lake Tahoe resident Kathy Graves.

Nissensohn spoke briefly during the hearing, saying he was having a problem obtaining information about a civil case related to the Graves case.

He intends to represent himself in the civil matter, Nissensohn said Thursday.

Details of the civil matter were not immediately available.

Deciding how information regarding the civil case will be released also likely will be part of a series of legal motions expected to last several months.

The next hearing in the case is scheduled for July 23.