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Reward money to convict campus slayer increase

By Daily Bruin Staff

Oct. 2, 1996 9:00 p.m.

By John Digrado
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

In response to the Sept. 15 murder of 37-year-old Central Ticket
Office employee Kevin Jeske, the Los Angeles City Council and
County Board of Supervisors have each approved $10,000
contributions to the reward pool for information leading to the
arrest and successful prosecution of Jeske’s murderer. The total
reward available is now $45,000.

In addition, university police department officials have begun a
formal review of their cash escort policies. Jeske was not under
police escort at the time of the murder.

"Police officers have always been available to conduct cash
escorts" between points on campus, said university police Capt.
Terry Baker, noting that it is difficult to escort every cash
transaction on campus due to the high number of transfers that
occur every day.

Baker said that university police are in the process of
reviewing a campus-wide protocol to establish the standards by
which police or other armed escorts can be provided on campus.

Current police policies require that employees performing campus
cash transfers must request police escorts in order to have an
armed officer accompany them across campus, Baker said.

According to police reports, no such request was made from the
Wadsworth Theater box office, where Jeske was working, to accompany
him to the Central Ticket Office, where he was murdered.

Shortly after the incident, Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev
Yaroslavsky brought an emergency motion to the board, urging the
approval of a $10,000 addition to the $25,000 reward initially
offered by Chancellor Charles Young.

In a statement brought to Los Angeles County Board of
Supervisors on Sept. 17, Yaroslavsky noted that "It would be in the
best interest of the county to support and enhance the efforts of
Chancellor Young and law enforcement to bring the perpetrators of
this act of violence at UCLA to justice." The board unanimously
approved the reward.

The Los Angeles City Board of Supervisors also recently approved
an additional $10,000 to aid in the capture of the suspect, police
said.

But despite the augmented reward, police said that they have no
major leads on the case, the second campus murder in UCLA’s
history.

"We’re looking at some leads, but we don’t have any suspects
that we feel very strong about at this time," Baker said. "We feel
confident that the investigators are going to do all that they can
to follow up any leads" that may lead them to the suspect, he
added.

Any degree of confidence in the investigation increases as
members of the public who recognize the composite come forward with
information that may lead to the perpetrator’s capture, Baker
said.

"Sometimes in cases like this people in the community are aware,
people talk, word gets around and hopefully the reward or any other
money offered would be an incentive to come for to the police so we
can solve this heinous crime," he added.

Yaroslavsky, a UCLA alumnus and supervisor of the third county
district ­ which includes UCLA ­ was the main impetus
behind the reward addition, hoping that the additional money would
encourage anyone with information on the crime to come forward.

"(Yaroslavsky) was very concerned about the effect on Jeske’s
family and the larger community and wanted to get the board
involved to hasten the apprehension of the person who perpetrated
the murder," said Joel Bellman, spokesman for Yaroslavsky’s
office.

"Everybody felt very bad about the loss and we certainly hope
that this effort helps contribute to apprehend the robber who
killed Kevin and that there will be swift and certain justice," he
added.

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