Picture Cloudy on Rewards

At the height of the Night Stalker terror in the summer of 1985, about $80,000 in reward money was pledged.

The pledges by public agencies and private groups, including the city of Los Angeles, the county and the state, were for the capture of the suspect, but the money was not to be distributed until the successful end of the trial.

With Wednesday’s conviction of Richard Ramirez, neither city, county nor state officials were prepared to say exactly how their respective reward trust funds might be distributed.

“The Los Angeles City Council appropriated $25,000 for the reward trust fund,” said Matt Callahan, senior management analyst for the city clerk. He added that he had “no idea” when the money might be dispersed.

Susan Loewenkamp, a deputy to County Supervisor Ed Edelman, said the county’s reward trust fund of $30,248 “will be distributed in the not-too-distant future by a committee appointed by the Los Angeles (County) Board of Supervisors.”

A spokeswoman for Assemblywoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Los Angeles), however, could not say for certain whether the state’s reward fund even existed.

“It’s not line-itemed clearly in the budget,” Maria Ochoa said.