Landlord Asks Leniency : Hungry Burglar Sent to Prison for 2 Years

A landlord Thursday asked a judge to be lenient with a transient who broke into an apartment but only helped himself to a cheese sandwich.

The apartment building’s owner, Clifton Treasure, said he asked San Fernando Superior Court Judge Robert D. Fratianne to reduce the sentence of transient Brian Keith Rogers, 26, because it appeared that Rogers was trying to cooperate with police.

When police arrived at the building April 29 after being summoned by a neighbor, the officers knocked on the door and asked who was in the apartment, Treasure said.

The man inside answered by giving his first name, Brian, Treasure said. “I can’t imagine anyone saying that and being a really bad guy,” he added.

“I thought he was either naive, honest or stupid,” he added.

Treasure maintained that, even after police arrived, Rogers could have escaped via a balcony in the rear of the apartment. “He could have dropped down 10 feet and slipped away into the night,” the landlord said.

Despite Treasure’s pleas that Rogers be sentenced to only a year in prison, Fratianne sentenced Rogers to two years.

But Rogers was not unhappy with the sentence. In fact, he had requested it.

After Rogers pleaded guilty to residential burglary May 12, he was offered the lighter sentence in a plea bargain, said Marc A. Hentell, his attorney.

Rogers told Hentell that he preferred the two-year sentence because he would serve it in state prison, where conditions are better. A one-year sentence would have been served in County Jail, Hentell said.

Rogers, an alcoholic who slept in North Hollywood Park, broke a window about 1 a.m. to gain entry to the apartment in the 4300 block of Colfax Avenue, police said. The residents of the apartment were not home. A neighbor heard the sounds of breaking glass and called police, the report said.

“He had food on the counter and had been making himself a sandwich,” Treasure said. “It almost seemed like he stumbled into the place.”