Bank, 2 Top Aides Named in Slumlord Case

Santa Monica Bank and two of its top officers were charged Thursday with 32 criminal counts over what the Los Angeles city attorney’s office said are slum conditions at a South-Central Los Angeles apartment house that the bank owned until last month.

The bank, along with its chief executive officer, Aubrey Austin Jr., 69, and its vice president, Ronald Makela, 42, were charged because of what City Atty. James K. Hahn said was a series of Fire, Health and Building and Safety Code violations in the 32-unit building at 124 West 22nd St.

Hahn said it was the first prosecution of a bank in a slumlord case since the Housing Enforcement Unit was created in the city prosecutor’s office five years ago.

Deputy City Atty. Marcia Gonzales said gas in the 55-year-old structure was turned off a year and a half ago by Southern California Gas Co. because of a leak. She said the bottom floor has been gutted and windows have been smashed so that derelicts have drifted in to threaten the safety of remaining tenants.

Hot Plates Used

“There is no hot water and no gas for cooking,” Gonzales said. “People living there are cooking on hot plates.”

Gonzales said polluted water stands a foot and a half deep in a basement room housing the inoperational water heaters. Gonzales also said the wiring is inadequate for the operation of refrigerators and other major appliances.

About 15 families, totaling about 50 people, reportedly still live in the building. Most are Spanish-speaking.

The tenants have been on a rent strike for a year in an effort to have conditions improved, Gonzales said, adding that many of them simply cannot afford to move.

The prosecutor said that although the building was declared substandard by building and safety inspectors before Santa Monica Bank purchased it in August, 1984, at a trustee auction, no real effort was apparently made to rectify the problems before the bank resold it last month to Hector and Elma Flores.

Work Left Undone

During the bank’s ownership, Gonzales said, “somebody who represented himself to be a contractor” did talk to fire inspectors about the work that had to be done, then left some lumber strewn around, “but didn’t complete anything.”

The situation now, she said, “is more dangerous than it was before.”

Hector Flores, 47, said he plans to remodel the building at a cost of about $150,000 and will evict the legitimate tenants, as well as people he feels are “trespassing,” while the work is done.

“The people don’t want this building fixed, because they don’t want to pay rent,” he said.

He said the owner from whom the bank bought the building did not take care of it, but that the tenants did not pay him either and that was why he went bankrupt.

Gonzales said that owner, Tofi Stephen, was convicted for failure to bring the building up to code but disappeared before serving his sentence. Stephen was ordered to pay a $2,000 fine or serve 64 days in jail.

If convicted on all counts, Hahn said, each defendant could face a maximum fine of $32,000. Each of the two executives could also be sentenced to as much as 16 months in jail, Hahn added. Neither was available for comment Thursday afternoon.

Arraignment is scheduled Nov. 7 in Los Angeles Municipal Court.

Times staff writer Sibil Jefferson contributed to this article.