Criminal Charges Cite Ongoing Slum Hazards : Koreatown: The new owners of an apartment building with a history of problems have been charged with failing to correct slum conditions.

City officials have filed criminal charges against the owners of a Koreatown apartment building for failing to correct “potentially life-threatening” health and safety problems that led to a previous landlord spending 80 days in jail.

Mark Vapnik, 22, of Tarzana, and Fairfax District residents Ezra Bazak, 56, and his wife, Bezor Bazak, 51, were named in the 36-count criminal complaint as the owners of the building. An arraignment hearing in the case, filed Jan. 4 by Los Angeles City Atty. James K. Hahn, is set for Jan. 25 in Los Angeles Municipal Court.

The charges stem from conditions at a three-story, 30-unit apartment at 2676 W. Pico Blvd., which city and county officials say is not only a fire and safety hazard, but is also infested with rodents, cockroaches and other vermin.

The building, located in a commercial area, has fire escapes that are blocked, exposed live wires, defective fire ladders, broken windows and other conditions, including missing smoke detectors, “which could lead to loss of life,” said Deputy City Atty. Michael R. Wilkinson.

“This building has never been in compliance with the law. We have prosecuted one former owner, and the violations have still never been corrected,” said Wilkinson, who is handling the case.

Vapnik, however, said the new owners have spent “tens of thousands” of dollars improving the building since they bought it in July for $545,000. He said any delays in renovating the building have been because local gang members had thwarted the efforts to clean the complex and rid it of drugs and violence.

Vapnik said that, with police help, the gang members had been forced from the apartment complex, and renovations are under way. Police officials said they were unable to confirm Vapnik’s statement because they do not keep records of the number of responses to individual locations.

“The city is suing us for something we don’t feel is right,” Vapnik said. “The building has been improved massively since we purchased it. We are not slum landlords; and if this goes to court, we will bring in our tenants to testify to that.”

The current owners acquired the building from an organization called Positive Realism, who in turn had received the property four months previously--apparently for free--from convicted slumlord Brett R. Broersma, Wilkinson said.

Broersma, 32, of Hollywood, was convicted last Jan. 27 of permitting slum conditions at the building, Wilkinson said. He was placed on three years probation, was forbidden to transfer the title of the property without bringing it into compliance with health and safety codes, and was ordered to pay $11,895 in fines and restitution, Wilkinson said.

Broersma later was jailed after city officials learned he had transferred ownership of the building to Positive Realism without making the repairs, Wilkinson said. Broersma has not paid the fines, the deputy city attorney said.

Hahn, in filing the charges, said such transfers of ownership of buildings make it hard for the city to enforce anti-slumlord laws.

“The purpose of the ban on selling the property in disrepair was to break the chain of neglect that is so common in slum buildings as they are passed from owner to owner,” Hahn said in a statement. “By violating that ban, Broersma enabled the chain to continue, and today we see many of the same deplorable and potentially life-threatening conditions at the building as we did when he owned it.”