Controversy Surrounded Slain Agoura Entrepreneur

Detectives investigating the murder of Judy Kanan, the Agoura-area pioneer who was shot and killed on a Woodland Hills sidewalk, Wednesday began looking into her personal and business life.

Six Los Angeles police detectives were ordered to work overtime on the case. Other officers were assigned to guard the 60-year-old victim’s sister at the Hollywood home that the pair shared.

Kanan was shot four times in the chest and stomach Tuesday afternoon as she prepared to feed horses she boarded at a corral. A witness told the police that a person wearing a black ski mask, a yellow raincoat and a light-colored hat climbed into a brown or copper-colored car and drove away after the shooting.

Involved in Disputes

Kanan was described Wednesday as a feisty, outspoken person who lived and worked with her sister, Patricia Kanan, 62. The pair were partners in an Agoura Hills shopping center and a chicken-and-rabbit restaurant there called Honey Bunnies.

Detective Stan Miller said investigators planned to focus on Kanan’s business activities after learning she had been involved in numerous lawsuits and acrimonious disputes. He said robbery has been ruled out as a motive.

Officers were assigned to watch the sister’s house on De Longpre Avenue in Hollywood because the women were business partners. “We’re just taking precautions for her safety,” Miller said.

Mixed Reactions

The murder prompted mixed reactions in Agoura Hills. Businessmen remembered Judy Kanan as a tough, single-minded businesswoman who had a penchant for suing.

“You’re going to have half the population of Agoura as suspects,” said liquor store owner Kim Coffin, a former Agoura weekly newspaper publisher. “It was just a matter of time. The most hated woman in Agoura got assassinated.”

“I wasn’t surprised,” said Sandee Roepel, a secretary to a chiropractor who rented office space from Kanan. “Most people I’ve talked to today were not surprised. There are a lot of people with vendettas against her.”

Such reactions may illustrate the nature of Agoura Hills.

Incorporated as a city only two years ago, it was settled in the 1950s and 1960s by crusty, often harshly opinionated individualists who feuded for years over such things as where new intersections would go.

One fight was over the location of the area’s only major north-south street. It was eventually built through Kanan-owned property--and named Kanan Road--and provided a choice site for the Kanan sisters’ shopping center when it opened in 1977. It was the centerpiece of family holdings worth an estimated $5 million to $6 million.

Tenants at the 12-store Kanan Village shopping center said Wednesday that Judy Kanan doggedly pursued tenants who were late with rent and workmen who failed to perform to her liking.

“There were two Judy Kanans,” said locksmith Barry Drucker, one of five businessmen who rent space at the center. “As a business person she was absolutely merciless. Her solution to everything was to sue. We had several severe disagreements. But as a person she would have coffee with you and talk about her hobbies.”

A few days after an argument over Kanan’s order to remove a radio antenna from the roof of Drucker’s shop, she “grabbed me and and took me to her restaurant and gave me half of her birthday cake,” Drucker said.

Last fall the sisters tangled with Drucker and one of his customers on the nationally syndicated “People’s Court” television show. The dispute was about the removal of the customer’s car from the shopping center parking lot. It had been left there for lock repair work.

The show uses a retired judge, who decides cases for people who agree to drop their lawsuits in exchange for appearing on camera. The judge asked Judy Kanan why she had not discussed the car with Drucker before ordering it towed away.

“Oh, I never go to see him, your honor,” she replied. “Unfortunately, he is a pathological prevaricator.”

Kanan later joked with Drucker about their television appearance, he said.

“I was thinking today of her as not a nice person,” he said. “Then I thought about the times we laughed. It was as though she was two persons.”

Another tenant, Salim Haddad, who owns a liquor store, said he learned that Kanan was “a super lady” after a dispute over rent went to court.

“I was having coffee with her and her sister a half hour before she was killed,” he said. “I gave her an Olympic pin I’d picked up, and she gave me a kiss on the cheek.”

Haddad said Kanan took his 9-year-old son, Sami, with her two weeks ago when she traveled to Woodland Hills to feed her horses. The six quarter horses were boarded at a corral in the 22900 block of Collins Street, where Kanan was killed.

Kanan had a reputation for being quick to protect family property, whether in keeping trucks off a vacant parcel or making repairs to the shopping center.

“She would not be pushed around,” said lawyer Tom Nuziato of Beverly Hills, who represented Kanan since 1981 in various legal fights.

“Judy got a reputation of being litigious, but I think that is unfair,” he said. “She stood up for her rights. She and her sister Pat were two small, cute women, and people just assumed they would be soft. They were tough.”

Nuziato said most of Kanan’s recent court battles stemmed from the construction of the shopping center, which he said had been vexed with construction and lease problems.

‘Took Civilized Route’

“Every time we went to court, we won,” he said. “So she was right. The difference between her and the person who gunned her down is she took the civilized route when she had a disagreement.”

Some who knew Kanan well said she had an affectionate side.

Hollywood neighbor Ruben Ramirez, 17, said Kanan would often take him with her during the summer when she fed her horses.

“She really loved them,” he said. “We would have a lot of fun, feeding and playing with the horses.”

Another neighbor, Francis Surroca, said Kanan could be quick to react when she saw something she didn’t like at home.

‘Not a Scared Bone’

“She would chase paperboys down the street if they threw a paper and broke the screen door or made a lot of noise,” Surroca said. “She would also take off after suspicious people in the neighborhood if she thought they were intruding or didn’t belong. She didn’t have a scared bone in her body.”

Kanan’s brother, Richard, 54, added that his sister seemed to “be made of cast iron. She was always strong-willed and determined. She wasn’t afraid of anybody.”

Staff writers Patricia Klein and Greg Braxton contributed to this story.