Unfit Building Leaves Legal Tangle : Housing: Officials are trying to determine who profited by collecting rent from 25 families living in condemned apartments.

Authorities in Pasadena were attempting to determine whether the owners of a condemned apartment building knew that more than 40 people had been living on the property illegally, some for as long as a year.

City officials found that about 25 families were renting units in the complex at 830 N. Orange Grove Ave. on Monday, after a concerned tenant called to inquire about a letter from a property manager stating that the city planned to cut off the building’s power supply.

Patsy Lane, Pasadena director of human services, said Thursday that when power officials checked, they found that the building had been declared unfit for habitation last November because it failed to meet many city codes and that power had been shut off about a year ago. When workers arrived Tuesday, they found an occupied building, with electricity and water bootlegged from city services.

A Pasadena man was arrested in the case but was released after prosecutors declined to file charges.

Utilities were shut off and city officials removed the families, citing safety hazards. The families were given temporary shelter at a motel, and officials were working to place them in long-term housing.

“As far as we were concerned, it was a condemned building set for demolition,” City Prosecutor Tracy Webb said. “Imagine our surprise when we found that there were lights on and people living there.”

City officials are sorting through a tangled maze of paperwork and verbal statements to determine who encouraged the families to move into the building and who profited from the rent that was collected. Rents varied, but some tenants paid $300 a month and others paid $400.

“It’s a complex puzzle,” Lane said. “It’s not clear exactly how it evolved and who is responsible.”

Until July, 1991, the building was owned by Raymond C. Jones, a developer who was trying to convert the aging building into an office complex. But Jones defaulted on his mortgage, and county property tax records show that Broadway Federal Savings & Loan became the legal owner.

However, Phil Tweedy, a Pasadena property manager working with Broadway Federal, said Jones remained in possession of the property and continued to operate it while trying to work out a deal with the savings and loan. Tweedy sent the letter earlier this month that triggered the tenant complaint.

On Tuesday, Pasadena Police arrested Anthony Banks, 32, on suspicion of grand theft after tenants said he recruited them and collected rents. But the district attorney’s office declined to file charges, saying there was no evidence that Banks knew that the building was unfit for occupancy.

After his release Wednesday, Banks told volunteers from the Fair Housing Council of the San Gabriel Valley that he was a paralegal who rented an office in the apartment building, Sandra Romero, director of the nonprofit council, said.

Banks also told Romero that he worked for Jones and was helping Jones run the property, Romero said Thursday.

Jones has declined comment. Banks could not be reached.