The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors today renewed a $10,000 reward for information leading to whoever fatally shot a lawyer in the driveway of his home in Rolling Hills Estates two years ago.
A total of $100,000 in reward money is being offered for information in the death of Jeffrey Tidus, 53, was shot once in the head outside his home in the 4600 block of Sugarhill Drive on the evening of Dec. 7, 2009. His wife told investigators he had gone outside to retrieve a laptop computer from his car after returning home from their Redondo Beach toy store.
He and his wife owned in South Redondo Beach.
Supervisor Don Knabe recommended that the reward, which was set to expire March 12, be extended for at least another 90 days.
"Mr. Tidus was active in various charities and was a valued member of
the community," Knabe said.
Family, friends and clients have separately raised $90,000 in reward money.
Investigators said Tidus appeared to have been targeted in the shooting and was not the victim of a random crime.
Tidus was an attorney with the downtown firm Baute & Tidus, which specialized in civil litigation.
His clients included several banks and failed subprime lender New Century Financial Corp. New Century executives were sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly misleading investors just hours before Tidus was shot, leading to some early speculation of suicide. But no weapon was found at the scene and the death was ruled a homicide.
Detectives moved on to consider those with possible vendettas against Tidus, who won cases involving multimillion-dollar settlements and obtained a restraining order against one defendant in a 2005 case.
"Jeff won some very big cases against some very nasty people," Rabbi Steven Silver of in Redondo Beach, where Tidus was a member, told the Los Angeles Times following Tidus' death.
Anyone with information was asked to call sheriff's Detectives Joe Espino or Bob Kenney at 323-890-5500.
