Owner of Apartments Must Repair Carport or Face Jail

The owner of an Orange apartment complex was ordered by a Municipal Court judge to repair 70 carport stalls at the development within the next 120 days or face six months in jail.

John Macuda of Los Angeles, whose partnership owns the complex in the 3100 block of E. Maple Street in Orange, was ordered this week to seal off the carport stalls to prevent anyone from using them until repairs are made.

Central Municipal Court Judge Gary P. Ryan also ordered Macuda to pay $2,700 in restitution and fees to the city, which had been negotiating with him since last May to make the repairs.

A jury found Macuda guilty of violating the city’s housing enforcement code after a brief trial two weeks ago.

Charles M. Farano, an attorney hired by the city of Orange to prosecute Macuda, charged in court that Macuda failed to repair a parking stall that collapsed after one of its supports was struck by an auto. Macuda argued that he was not liable for the auto accident, but city officials contended that the wooden supports had rotted and that the entire carport was in poor condition.

“What infuriates me is that he’s had months and months to make these repairs and he’s done nothing,” Farano told the court at Macuda’s sentencing Thursday. “. . . His attitude has been horrendous. He has in essence kissed the city off. He needs an incentive from this court.”

Macuda’s attorney, Charles Pierce, told Ryan: “My client is not a slumlord. . . . He is an upstanding, honorable businessman.”

Macuda denied that he ignored the city’s work order. He told the court that several meetings he had scheduled with city officials were postponed at the city’s request, and that the work would have been done if the city had not insisted on an entirely new carport

“I’ve done everything I could to work with the city to get this done,” Macuda said. “But they wanted me to build a new carport, and I just didn’t think that was fair.”

Ryan sentenced Macuda to six months in Orange County Jail, but stayed the sentence for 120 days pending completion of the carport repairs. If Macuda does not have the work done by then, the jail term will be enforced, Ryan said.

The city will monitor the situation to make sure Macuda complies, Farano said. “That’s a very dangerous situation out there,” he said.

Farano described the Macuda case as part of a crackdown by city officials on code violations.

Ryan ordered Macuda to return to court May 17 to report on whether the carport repairs are done to the city’s satisfaction.