VAN NUYS : Judge Orders Mini-Mall Owner to Stop Drug Trade
Declaring that rampant crack cocaine dealing had turned a Van Nuys mini-mall into a public nuisance, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge Wednesday ordered the mall’s landlords and the proprietor of a doughnut store to rid the site of drugs or risk forfeiting the property.
Under an obscure state law that shifts the burden of ensuring public safety from police patrols to private property owners, Judge Raymond Cardenas ruled the landlords must prominently post signs warning drug dealers to stay away. He also ordered the mall surrounded by high-powered lights and a guarded security fence.
Cardenas demanded that the proprietor of the 24-hour doughnut store close up shop from midnight to 4 a.m., or hire a separate security guard during those hours to curb drug trade at the store at Roscoe and Sepulveda boulevards. Prosecutors said crack dealers loiter inside while waiting for business.
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