City Attorney Seeks Injunctions Against Suspected Drug Dens In South LA, Hollywood
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Lawsuits have been filed against the owners of residential properties in South Los Angeles and Hollywood that City Attorney Mike Feuer says are known as drug and gang dens.
City attorneys – citing more than nine cases involving PCP and weapons possession at a South Los Angeles single-family home – are seeking an injunction against property owner Mattie J. Sampson that would prevent her son, Bobby J. Sampson, a known gang member, and others from stepping foot on the property, Feuer said.
The property at 1233 W. 52nd St. in the Vermont Avenue neighborhood is a "hybrid PCP swap meet and flop house," where the Crips street gang has held sway for more than a decade, according to the city's lawsuit.
City attorneys also sued David Lester Baxter, who owns two adjacent properties in Hollywood on 5655 and 5657 Lexington Avenue, where they allege methamphetamine is sold and stored.
The city is seeking injunctions to prevent the owners and known associates from illegally selling, making or storing controlled substances at the properties. Current tenants would need to move out and stay at least 1,000 feet away as part of the proposed restrictions.
City attorneys say the Hollywood properties have been an "epicenter of criminal activity" over the past decade. Prostitutes, transients, parolees and people on probation frequent the home, where 15 arrests have been made.
Feuer said a "single property can endanger an entire neighborhood" and property owners are responsible for keeping them from becoming crime dens.
"If they fail to fulfill that obligation – ignoring criminal activity, for example, that jeopardizes neighborhood safety – my office will hold them accountable," he said.
Hearings have not yet been scheduled in the lawsuits, but city attorneys say they hope to obtain injunctions against the properties within the next 30 days.
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