No One Takes Blame in Case of Slumlord

Everyone pretty much agrees that a bureaucratic snafu is to blame for Vijaynard Sharma, one of Los Angeles’ worst slumlords, becoming a fugitive again.

But no one--not New Jersey officials who had custody of Sharma last week and not Los Angeles authorities who so badly wanted him extradited--is eager to admit fault.

On Tuesday, one day after Sharma failed to appear for a court hearing in New Jersey and apparently resumed his life on the lam, there was considerable finger-pointing.

‘Blaming Them’

“Los Angeles is blaming us, and we’re blaming them,” said George Kearns, a spokesman for the prosecutor in Camden County where the fugitive landlord was mistakenly released last Friday on $20,000 bail.

Actually, it was blunders by both sides that allowed Sharma to slip through.

A native of the Fiji Islands, Sharma, 41, fled Los Angeles in January shortly before he was to begin serving a jail sentence for a probation violation. After seven months on the road (he was once reported seen driving a mobile home with a blonde at his side), Sharma was arrested last Wednesday by the FBI in Cherry Hill, N.J.

The FBI, noting that Sharma was a fugitive, held him on a no-bail federal warrant. That same day, FBI agents transported him to a jail in Gloucester County, N.J.

Prosecutors in the Los Angeles city attorney’s office say they contacted Gloucester County Jail authorities the day of the arrest. They were told that Sharma wanted to waive extradition proceedings and return to Los Angeles where he faces at least 20 months in jail and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines for Housing Code violations at 18 rat-infested motels and apartments.

City prosecutors, who rarely handle extradition matters, say they assumed Sharma was to be held in Gloucester County under federal custody long enough for them to work out an arrangement with the district attorney’s office to pick up Sharma.

Passed to Local Authorities

Instead, for reasons not completely known, Sharma was taken the next day to a jail in nearby Camden County where custody was passed from the FBI to local authorities. The no-bail federal warrant no longer applied.

That morning, Los Angeles Police Sgt. Harry Dideon sent a Teletype to the Camden County sheriff’s fugitive warrant detail emphasizing that Sharma was no ordinary slumlord. Dideon urged that bail be set at $750,000.

Camden County authorities admit that the substance of the Teletype never was passed on from the Camden County Sheriff’s Department to the court.

When Camden County Superior Court Judge David Eynon set bail at $20,000, the paper work before him apparently revealed only that Sharma was a fugitive from Los Angeles who had one outstanding warrant involving illegal waste dumping.

“Our office did not get that Teletype,” said Doug Haines, a Camden County Superior Court probation officer who recommends bail amounts to judges. “That information would have changed things quite a bit. We would have taken that into the judge, and I think certainly he would have increased the bail significantly.”

A spokesman for the Camden County Sheriff’s Department said the police Teletype was forwarded to Camden County prosecutors.

But Camden County prosecutors deny ever receiving the Teletype. And they add that the failure to get the right information to the court was partly the fault of Los Angeles officials. A simple call to Camden County prosecutors reiterating the information in the Teletype would have been enough for them to alert the court.

“I’m looking at this Teletype for the first time,” Camden County Prosecutor Sam Asbell said Tuesday. “It reads 11 outstanding warrants and recommends bail at $750,000. That raises a red flag. That’s serious.

“But we didn’t know about it. Apparently there was a breakdown in communication.”

Los Angeles Deputy City Atty. Stephanie Sautner said the New Jersey authorities she talked to were in Gloucester County, not Camden County. She said Paul Franey, an investigator in her office, was responsible for setting up the extradition.

But Franey denied having anything to do with the case. He said the district attorney’s office was handling the extradition.

“Everyone is throwing it on me. I’m the fall guy in all this bull crap,” he said. “But I had nothing to do with Sharma.”