Local News in Brief : Yuletide Jail Sentence

Convicted slumlord Dr. Milton Avol will begin serving a nine-month jail sentence Christmas Eve for failing to clean up rodent infestations and other violations at three apartment buildings he owned, the city attorney’s office said Thursday.

Avol’s attorney, Donald H. Steier, said Los Angeles Municipal Judge Marion Obera went “by the book” in setting the date. Routinely, sentences begin 15 days after a judge receives notice that an appeal has been turned down, he said. Obera set the date Wednesday after the Superior Court Appellate Department rejected Avol’s appeal.

Last summer Avol, 64, a Beverly Hills neurosurgeon, spent 30 days under house arrest at one of his apartment buildings for failure to correct slum conditions.

“I’m sure the people who lived in his buildings had many a miserable Christmas,” said Deputy City Atty. Stephanie Sautner, who prosecuted Avol. “And I won’t get into ‘not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.’ ”