Judge Rejects House Arrest for Policeman : Courts: Electronic surveillance is intended only for those charged in nonviolent crimes, a judge rules. The ruling comes after man being monitored is accused of killing his wife.

Only days after a Harbor City man under house arrest and wearing an electronic surveillance monitor was accused of fleeing his home and killing his wife, a judge ruled that a Long Beach police sergeant charged with sexually attacking two women should not be released from jail under a similar program.

San Pedro Municipal Court Judge Elizabeth A. Baron denied a request by Sgt. Robert Ballew’s attorney that the defendant be released from jail and confined to his home, where he would be electronically monitored.

In denying the request, Baron said that electronic surveillance offers no guarantees and should be used only for people who are not suspected of committing violent crimes.

Ballew is charged with attempting to rape one woman last month and raping another woman six years ago. He has pleaded not guilty to both charges.

“Clearly, electronic monitoring provides no protection to the community against violent crimes,” Baron said Thursday. Such devices also “provide no incentive for a person to return to court.”

Last Sunday, Steve Moon Martinez, under house arrest and wearing an electronic surveillance bracelet, left his home, drove to Carson and allegedly shot his wife to death, according to police.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Thomas Gray, who argued against releasing Ballew to the confinement of his home, said in an interview: “There’s a woman who is dead now because somebody allowed her husband to use this monitor. So I hope that somebody sits up and takes notice. We’re talking about protection for the public.”

“This man does have access to deadly weapons. He’s a police officer,” Gray told the judge.

John Barnett, Ballew’s attorney, said he did not want to speculate as to whether the murder of Nikki Martinez persuaded an investigator to recommend against releasing Ballew from jail.

But Barnett said that last Tuesday, investigator Connie Leathers, of the court system’s Supervised Release Program, told him in a phone conversation that she would recommend that his client be released to his home and electronically monitored.

Instead, in her recommendation to the court, Leathers said that Ballew posed “a risk to the community” and a “potential flight risk” and should not be released.

Ralph Rodgers, head of the court program that assists judges in deciding whether to release suspects from jail, said that the Martinez case did not influence the Ballew recommendation.

“(Barnett) might have gotten the impression that (the investigator) did see some things about (Ballew) that were favorable,” Rodgers said. “But in the process of (Leather’s) investigation, she found enough unfavorable things” to recommend against the sergeant’s release, he said.

As for the misunderstanding with Barnett, Rodgers said: “It’s sometimes easy for people to misconstrue.”

The judge said that the relatively new release program should be used only in some cases.

“Electronic monitoring is really a means of supervising people who have not committed (or are suspects in) violent crimes,” Baron said before denying the request.

Baron also increased Ballew’s bail from $175,000 to $220,000 at the request of the deputy district attorney, who argued that the original amount was set before Ballew was charged in the older rape case.

Ballew, a 16-year veteran of the Long Beach Police Department, was arrested Sept. 15 by San Pedro police officers responding to a call about a woman screaming. The woman told police that Ballew offered to give her a ride home but instead took her to a secluded area and attacked her. Acccording to police, the woman appeared dazed and had used the drug PCP. She could not tell police whether she had been raped.

On Sept. 30, Ballew was charged with raping another woman in 1985, a case that was dropped at the time because of inconsistencies in the woman’s testimony. Police reopened that case after Ballew was arrested last month, and prosecutors filed charges 10 days before the statute of limitations expired.

Ballew faces a maximum of 27 years in prison if convicted on all charges.