Apartment Manager Faces Racial Prejudice Charges

A Wilshire district apartment manager was charged Tuesday in connection with what police said was a racially motivated campaign--including the hanging of a black doll from a black family’s front door--to evict the family from the building.

Barbara Turner, 49, faces two counts of willfully inflicting mental suffering on a child and one count of battery, the Los Angeles city attorney’s office said.

Turner, who manages a three-story apartment building, repeatedly harassed Sheila Swan, 38, and her two of her three daughters in the past month, according to a police report. Swan said Turner called them racial epithets, ordered them from the apartment pool and pushed one of her daughters, causing her to fall and hurt herself.

On Aug. 9, the doll was hung from the Swans’ front door. Scrawled in red lipstick next to the doll was a racial epithet, followed by the word “move,” police said. A neighbor told police she saw Turner place the doll on the door.

Swan and her daughters, Shanika, 13, Latoya, 10, and Shannon, 4, moved into a one-bedroom unit in the building, in the 300 block of South New Hampshire Avenue, in early July. About a week later, the family was offered a cheaper unit in San Bernardino County and Swan subsequently gave 30-day notice, according to police reports.

Turner “became enraged after receiving the notice and demanded that Swan pay six months’ rent in advance so she could break her six-month lease,” Swan told police.

Worried about possibly having to pay for two apartments, Swan said, she decided to stay.

In mid-July, Turner launched a daily campaign against the family, hurling racial epithets on several occasions, Swan said. On another occasion, Turner chased Shannon, causing the child to fall and skin her knees, according to the report.

On Aug. 13, Shanika Swan told police, Turner accused her of “making excessive noise” and asked her to leave the pool area with her sister. When she questioned Turner, Shanika said, the apartment manager cursed and pushed her.

Police said Turner has refused to discuss the alleged incidents.

Turner is scheduled to be arraigned Sept. 10 in Los Angeles Municipal Court. If convicted on all counts, she would face a maximum of $5,000 in fines and 18 months in County Jail.