WESTMINSTER : Authorities Urged to Reopen Slaying Case

Family members and friends of a man slain last year in the Tijuana Jones parking lot are demanding that authorities reopen the unsolved case.

Calling for justice, about 30 of Bryan Bensfield’s relatives turned out for a City Council meeting this week.

“How can our lives go on when there’s no closure on this case?” said the victim’s mother, Regina Hardin, who periodically makes appearances before the council asking officials to look into the case.

According to police, Bensfield was beaten to death in November, 1991, by several men outside Tijuana Jones, a restaurant that offered live nightly entertainment. The restaurant went out of business after the incident. Although three men were named as suspects, no one was charged.

Holding up the navy shirt her son wore the night he was killed, Hardin told the council that the tattered garment should have been used as evidence in the investigation. “I am not showing you this to horrify you . . . but as evidence,” she said. “Neither the Police Department or the district attorney has asked me for this.”

Hardin said the shirt was ripped to shreds by Bensfield’s attackers. She charged that her attorney and a private investigator have determined that police and the district attorney mishandled the investigation.

She submitted more than 400 pages and 10 cassette tapes of investigative documents released by police earlier this year and asked the council to review the information and reopen the case.

“I just want due process of law,” Hardin said. “Brian had rights, but those were taken away. We have to do this because Brian can’t.”

Hardin has spearheaded an extensive letter-writing campaign and has collected hundreds of signatures in hopes of getting the attention of county, state and national politicians.

“I will stand by what a court hands down, but not what the police or the D.A. says,” she said.

However, the council did not respond to any of Hardin’s statements because of a lawsuit that Bensfield’s family has filed against the city. The civil suit names several defendants, including the city, the Police Department and the owners of Tijuana Jones.