Landlord Sued to End Gang Problems : Crime: Neighbors win small claims judgment against Hollywood apartment building owner. Citizens are turning to civil courts to obtain recourse from such disruptions to their lives.

In “The Jungle,” a community of apartments west of Crenshaw Boulevard, landlord Eric Crumpton started a group to rout drug pushers from the area. But residents of a once-quiet Hollywood street blame Crumpton for gang problems in a building he owns there, and they are wielding a novel weapon in their fight against crime: They are holding Crumpton responsible in court.

After a hearing in Small Claims Court, a Los Angeles Municipal Court commissioner awarded $2,000 apiece to 10 neighbors of a Crumpton building at Hollywood and Winona boulevards, agreeing with the group’s contention that the landlord allowed gangs to use the property, which is one block west of Normandie Avenue.

Crumpton’s appeal of last March’s judgment is scheduled for a Superior Court hearing today.

Civil courts are emerging as a new front in battles against property owners whose buildings become centers of drug or gang activity. In Berkeley, 18 neighbors won $1,000 apiece last year, and their legal action led the landlord to evict the tenants causing the disruption.

In San Francisco, 15 neighbors won a total of $30,000 against a property owner, who subsequently lost an appeal this year in Superior Court. “She knew about the situation and the court held that knowledge would require action by the landlord,” said the owner’s attorney, Joseph K. Bravo. He added that there are no tenants in the building now.

“I’m resigned to the fact that these cases probably have their place,” said Bravo, who also is president of the San Francisco Apartment Assn., a landlord group. “They’re a way for people in a neighborhood to try and take care of a problem, to coerce a landlord who is reluctant to do anything.”

The Hollywood neighbors, who formed a group called Street Peace, said they called police, wrote letters to Crumpton and invited the landlord to meetings before resorting to their legal strategy.

They heard about the Northern California actions, pondered the relative speed and low cost of Small Claims Court, and decided to press their case.

“It’s not a matter of money, but this man doesn’t seem to understand anything else,” said Ron Lazar, founder of Street Peace and one of the plaintiffs against Crumpton. Lazar manages a six-unit apartment on Winona Boulevard across the street from Crumpton’s building.

“We’ve had tenants in our building that cause trouble, but we took care of it,” said Lazar. “He should be able to, too.”

The neighbors--immigrants, retirees and young families--said their street had been plagued at one time by prostitutes. But they added that Winona Boulevard, a mix of wood-frame bungalows and older apartment buildings, had been calm for years by the time a gang member’s father was hired to manage Crumpton’s four-story brick building about 1987.

Friends of the manager’s son came around, neighbors said, launching into a litany of complaints about what happened next.

Police became frequent visitors, confiscating guns and knives while LAPD helicopters hovered overhead. Gang members used neighboring houses as escape routes. Gunfire became a familiar sound. A rifleman was spotted on a third-floor fire escape on the building’s front.

Security bars went up on windows, and fences, some with barbed wire, were erected in yards and on roofs. One woman built a barricade of thorny rose stems; another rubbed automobile grease on her fence.

“I can’t walk outside with my 3-year-old son anymore,” said Josh Giddings, a 36-year-old writer and graduate student. “A beer bottle was thrown at me. There’ve been brawls in front of the house.”

“It’s lawlessness; it’s anarchy,” said Janet Barber, a 65-year-old former college professor.

Los Angeles police officer Carlos Lopez said he talked with Crumpton about gang activity at the building shortly after the small claims suit was filed last February. “He was surprised,” Lopez said. “He wanted to cooperate with us.”

Since the judgment against him, gang activity has been “cut down considerably,” Lopez said. But he added, “It’s not solved. It’s a cycle; it’s going to be an ongoing problem.”

The landlord declined comment, except to confirm that he is the Eric Crumpton who started the Crenshaw Apartment Improvement Program several years ago. His attorney, Robert Weber, also refused to respond to the neighbors’ charges.