Illegal Flower Seller to Pay Penance With Pruning Shears

A Woodland Hills rose peddler has become a pruner because of her conviction for selling flowers without a permit and assaulting a police officer who tried to arrest her.

Rejecting a prosecutor’s plea to jail 20-year-old Karla Kaufman, a Van Nuys judge Tuesday sentenced her to 20 days of community service--to be spent gardening in municipal greenbelts under the direction of the city’s Board of Public Works.

Kaufman was convicted June 5 of five misdemeanor charges stemming from the unauthorized sale of flowers on a Woodland Hills street corner the evening before Easter, 1986. Besides the 160 hours of landscaping, Van Nuys Municipal Judge Terry L. Smerling sentenced her to two years’ probation.

According to testimony during a three-day trial, Karla and her sister, Erika, 28, also of Woodland Hills, became belligerent when a California State Police officer ordered them to bag their blooms and depart.

Scuffle With Officer

Karla, who is 5-foot-5, got into a brawl with the 6-foot officer and wound up with a broken nose. He was scratched and bruised on his legs and neck.

The sisters testified that they were unfamiliar with the State Police and feared they had encountered the Hillside Strangler masquerading as a lawman. They said the officer overreacted and angrily grabbed Karla’s arm, sparking the scuffle.

The State Police employ 340 officers to protect state property, including that along the Ventura Freeway where the sisters had set up shop.

Besides charges of unauthorized street vending and battery on a peace officer, Karla was found guilty of resisting arrest, resisting an executive officer and trespassing.

Erika was convicted on four counts but acquitted on the battery charge. She requested a new attorney Tuesday and a delay in sentencing to Aug. 24.

‘Tough Enough Time’

Karla could have received more than a year in County Jail. Erika also faces a possible jail term.

Deputy City Atty. Michael J. Finkle, who prosecuted the pair, urged that Karla be incarcerated.

“Officers have a tough enough time without having to face instances where they are resisted,” Finkle said.

Smerling scolded Karla and labeled the charges serious.

“Situations like these can become fatal,” the judge said of the row.

However, he concluded that Karla, who has no criminal record, had learned her lesson after spending the night of her arrest at Sybil Brand Institute, the county’s jail for women.

“It seems to me that this whole incident was an aberration in your life,” Smerling told her.