Local News in Brief : Slumlord Receives Fine, a Year in Jail

A Sherman Oaks man was sentenced Monday to one year in jail and fined $2,500 for keeping two Los Angeles properties in slum-like conditions, infested with rats and cockroaches.

It was the third jail sentence in a year handed down against Robert Wayne Morrison, 59, for maintaining substandard conditions at residential properties.

Morrison was convicted of five misdemeanor violations of the California Health and Safety Code. Municipal Judge John Harris told Morrison that he had visited the two properties--a single-family dwelling in South-Central Los Angeles and a six-unit apartment building in Echo Park--and found them “deplorable.”

Morrison was originally charged with 10 counts, but the jury deadlocked on five charges of health violations at a third Los Angeles apartment complex. Those charges were refiled, and trial was scheduled for Sept. 12, said Deputy City Atty. Vivienne Swanigan.

Morrison owns 25 other properties, including apartments in Van Nuys, East Los Angeles and South-Central Los Angeles.

Morrison was sentenced in December to six months in jail for failing to repair unsafe conditions at his Sherman Oaks home and ignoring a city order to vacate it. He posted a bond and remained free on appeal. He is also free on bond on a 290-day sentence for ignoring court orders to repair slum conditions at an Eastside duplex and a residential complex in South-Central Los Angeles.