6 Area Residents Among Honorees Praised for Fighting Drugs, Gangs

Six San Fernando Valley residents and 12 others were honored Friday for risking their lives to fight drug sales and gang crime in their neighborhoods, the Los Angeles city attorney’s office said.

All those honored worked with FALCON (Focused Attack Linking Community Organizations and Neighborhoods), a task force operated by the city attorney’s office, the Los Angeles Police Department and the city Department of Building and Planning to help residents rid their neighborhoods of crime through block projects.

The organization joins community-based organizations with government agencies, from the county Health Department to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, said Ted Goldstein of the city attorney’s office.

Marco Del Cid, a Canoga Park apartment manager who battled drug dealers around his building, was among those City Atty. James K. Hahn honored at a City Hall breakfast. When Del Cid walked out of his home earlier this year, he was attacked by angry dealers who broke his nose, Hahn said. He received more than 100 stitches.

The dealers were arrested, with Del Cid’s help, and convicted of felony assault with a deadly weapon, Hahn said.

Jerry Rosen is a North Hollywood homeowner who lives next to a house that had been used by heroin dealers, Hahn said. Rosen told police about the absentee owner of the house, which led to a city order that the owner clean up and restore the property.

Hahn said that Bob Duncan, a property manager, helped renovate one of the worst crack houses in a Van Nuys neighborhood with gang and drug problems. “He recruited and hired local residents to save and restore the house for their neighborhood,” Hahn said.

Wendy Hertz, who lives in a quiet residential area of North Hollywood, was frustrated by drug dealers who worked out of a nearby house next to an elementary school, Hahn said, so she talked to police and helped federal officials seize the rock house.

Brian Boord of Panorama City was honored because he organized his neighbors against gangs, Hahn said. “Brian’s strong apartment-management skills and commitment to improving the neighborhood have set a strong example for others,” he said.

Tony Swan, a property supervisor from Tarzana who the city attorney said urges property owners to combat crime and take responsibility for their buildings, was also honored.

Other recipients were: Lauren Bryant of La Crescenta; Gerhard and Romana Pichel of Pacific Palisades; Sylvia Davis of Southwest Los Angeles; Mirrien Foster of Compton; T.G. Wing Chow and Florence de Bellis of Los Angeles; Treeo Klein of Hollywood; Jessie Medina of El Sereno; John Huntington of Wilmington; Eddie Truman of Hollywood Hills, and Zoila Terrazas of Anaheim.