Police wish to offer reward in murder case

Eron Ben-Yehuda

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- Unable to crack a murder case after months of

investigating, the police are asking the City Council to authorize a

$25,000 reward for information leading to a conviction of the person who

killed a 29-year-old woman in November.

The request, the first one in recent history, came before the council

last week, but City Administrator Ray Silver shelved the proposal until

the police set some general guidelines for giving out rewards.

“I’ve got to listen to the police and figure [out] where to go from

there,” Silver said.

The death of Bridgette Elizabeth Ballas, who was found fatally injured in

the early morning Nov. 27, shocked the city, leaving many women afraid to

walk the streets at night.

Councilman Peter Green said he favors the reward to assure people the

city is doing everything possible to break the case,.

“We have to act quickly so the siege mentality doesn’t pervade our

community,” he said.

Green hopes the reward, if offered, will encourage a witness to come

forward.

“That person is still probably loose in Huntington Beach,” he said.

A neighbor on his way to work found Ballas lying by the curb in the 900

block of Huntington Street. The area has so many houses, Huntington Beach

Police Lt. Chuck Thomas said, that maybe a resident heard Ballas scream

or put up a fight. The official cause of her death is listed as blunt

force trauma to the head.

“We believe that somebody must have seen something, must have heard

something or knows something,” Thomas said.

Thomas, a 15-year veteran, couldn’t recall the last time a reward was

offered by the city.

The council is authorized to approve the reward because the mystery

surrounding Ballas’ death could qualify as an “unanticipated emergency,”

wrote Police Chief Ron Lowenberg in a memo dated Feb. 22. The money would

be taken out of the city’s general fund, which is set aside for

discretionary spending.