State Reward in Cosby Case Is Criticized

SACRAMENTO — In his capacity as acting governor, Lt. Gov. Gray Davis recently made the attention-getting decision of offering a $50,000 reward in taxpayer money to help catch the killer of Ennis Cosby--and quickly prompted the wrath of a partisan rival.

In the midst of the national outpouring of grief over the death of entertainer Bill Cosby’s only son, a conservative Republican lawmaker from Diamond Bar said Democrat Davis was playing politics with the official reward proclamation.

Assemblyman Gary Miller said there are no similar rewards being offered to capture the killers of ordinary people.

Davis’ office defended the reward as appropriate and not unusual.

But Miller labeled the move a “transparent political stunt” by Davis to keep his name before the public as he gears up to run for the Democratic nomination for governor next year.

Noting that the wealthy Cosby family could afford its own reward inducement, Miller declared Wednesday that Davis should write a personal check if he wants to get in on the publicity surrounding the Cosby slaying.

“I feel sorry for the Cosby family but I feel what Gray Davis did was an insult to the Cosby family, to crime victims’ families throughout California, and it’s an insult to the intelligence of the voters of California,” Miller said.

He first lashed out at Davis on Monday in a speech on the Assembly floor--the only lawmaker to do so.

Davis’ chief of staff, Garry South, said Davis’ action was no more or less than what governors and acting governors routinely do to help fight crime.

He said Davis called Los Angeles Police Chief Willie L. Williams and offered to issue the reward notice, and Williams replied that it would be welcome.

Miller complained that although he admires Bill Cosby, the use of public dollars on behalf of a celebrity’s family was particularly irksome because Miller had heard just recently from a father in his district who had lost a son in an unsolved murder.

No reward was offered from a state official in that case, or in any case involving ordinary crime victims, Miller said.

South contended that rewards work better in cases the public knows about through media coverage because, at the same time, more people learn that a reward is being offered.

“A high-profile case has more capability of being solved by the issuance of a reward than the typical rank-and-file case,” South said. “That’s just a reality . . . unfair as it may seem to some other family who is grieving because they lost a loved one in similar circumstances.”

Davis, who has assumed the reins of the governorship while Republican Gov. Pete Wilson tours Asia to promote California trade, issued the proclamation Friday authorizing payment of $50,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Ennis Cosby’s killer.

The proclamation stipulated that the amount would be drawn from the tax-supported state general fund.

South noted that in the Cosby case, the Los Angeles City Council had issued a reward for $25,000 and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors had offered $12,500.

In contacting Williams to inquire if a state reward would help, South said, Davis was only doing his duty and was “not engaged in some grandstanding” act.

However, a spokesman for Wilson said there was a difference in Wilson’s practice in reward situations.

Wilson, said spokesman Ron Low, acts only after local law enforcement comes to him with a reward request. Wilson does not initiate the contact and does not act until he is asked, Low said.

Davis was also criticized by at least one crime victims group, the statewide Doris Tate Crime Victims Bureau based in Sacramento.

“It’s offensive,” said Kelly Rudiger, executive director of the group named after the mother of actress Sharon Tate, who was murdered by members of the Manson Family in 1969.

“There are many unsolved cases that could be solved with the incentive of cash,” she said. “This has generated a lot of verbal aggression against Gray by our members. They’re asking, ‘Why Cosby and not Smith and Jones and Brown?’ ”