PUBLIC SAFETY AND COURTS New technology helps...

PUBLIC SAFETY AND COURTS

New technology helps solve a 1988 murder case A former security guard serving a 50-year prison term in Michigan

was linked using DNA evidence to the 1988 murder of Malinda Gibbons,

a 22-year-old woman who was raped and stabbed in her Costa Mesa

apartment, officials said.

A judge issued an arrest warrant Monday for 34-year-old Jason

Michael Balcom, who police say was living in a Costa Mesa motel at

the time and working as a security guard at the Fedco department

store on Harbor Boulevard.

Gibbons’ husband Kent found his wife dead after he came home from

work on the evening of July 18, 1988. The young couple had moved to

their new apartment two days before the incident. Officials said

Malinda Gibbons had been strangled and stabbed once in the chest. A

forensic examination later revealed that she had been sexually

assaulted.

Balcom’s DNA information was entered into a national database by

authorities in Michigan earlier this year. The Orange County Crime

Lab matched that entry with the Costa Mesa Police Department’s

information from the crime scene.

Balcom has been in prison since September 1988 for sexually

assaulting another woman in Michigan. He will be extradited from

Michigan to face trial in Orange County, officials said.

* Closing arguments in a high-profile gang-rape case, involving

the son of a high-ranking county official, are expected to begin on

Tuesday.

Prosecutors allege that Greg Haidl, son of Orange County Assistant

Sheriff Don Haidl, Kyle Nachreiner and Keith Spann raped and sexually

assaulted an unconscious 16-year-old girl at the elder Haidl’s Corona

del Mar home two years ago.

The defendants also captured the incident on a videotape, which

was played for jurors. The trial began on May 3. The defense has

maintained that the sexual acts were consensual, that the girl was

conscious and in a position to give consent, and that she did not

suffer any injury.

Both sides rested their respective cases on Thursday. Last week,

the prosecution and defense presented witnesses to rebut the each

other’s testimony.

-- Deepa Bharath

NEWPORT BEACH

Museum making it

pretty for the art

Orange County Museum of Art officials are modernizing their main

facility near Fashion Island, as well as a South Coast Plaza art

space.

The museum recently began a five-month, $1-million renovation

project to update the building by reconfiguring the main entry area

and redesigning the sculpture courtyard to make it suitable for

concerts and other live events.

* Balboa Bay Club President Henry Schielein, who has been with the

club for 10 years, accepted the International Star Diamond Award last

week from the American Academy of Hospitality Sciences.

The Balboa Bay Club’s award is one of 14 Star Diamond Awards to be

given in the greater Los Angeles area this year and one of only two

that Joseph Cinque, president of the academy, will present in person,

Dixon said.

Daily Pilot staff

POLITICS

Newport Beach looking

to dredge up funds

Newport Beach officials are continuing to lobby federal officials

after a House committee gave them only $500,000 of the $24.5 million

the city needs to move forward with a dredging project in the Upper

Newport Bay. The dredging has been planned for several years and must

have the federal funds to begin, city officials said. Rep. Chris Cox

said the funding may still come through at a later stage of the 2005

appropriations process.

* A pro-Israeli organization denounced plans by Muslim UC Irvine

students to wear green stoles as a demonstration of their faith at

their commencement ceremonies this weekend, citing the displays as

support for terrorism. A group of about a dozen Muslim students

planned to wear the stoles, which they said symbolize their faith. A

national Jewish organization and campus Jewish groups contended that

the displays were a support of terrorist activities, and they called

for the university to ban the stoles from the ceremony.

-- Daily Pilot staff

COSTA MESA

Eventually, a place to call home at 1901 Newport

A controversial condominium project can now just be a plain old

project.

The condominium project at 1901 Newport Boulevard received city

approval last week in the form of an affordable housing agreement.

The agreement spells out how 12 required affordable housing units

will be handled: Rutter Development will provide seven

moderate-income units, and the Redevelopment Agency will provide five

very-low-income units.

Rutter officials also dropped a lawsuit filed against the city.

* Estancia High School and TeWinkle Middle School will get their

first chunk of money from the Home Ranch project for the start of

school this fall.

The Estancia and TeWinkle Schools Foundation announced that it has

approved more than $65,000 for 15 grants at the two schools. That

money comes from interest on an initial $1-million contribution from

the Segerstrom family, part of an agreement struck with the city when

C.J. Segerstrom and Sons started its Home Ranch development.

-- Daily Pilot staff