Landlord Gets 90 Days in Jail for Failure to Fix Units : Courts: Daniel Salceda was warned a year ago to make repairs to the cockroach-infested, crowded building in Santa Ana.

A judge who inspected a 10-unit apartment building on Friday and described it as a “hovel” ordered landlord Daniel Salceda of Irvine to spend 90 days in jail for failing to make repairs.

After touring the two-story building near Civic Center Plaza for about 45 minutes, Municipal Judge James Brooks said it should be demolished, witnesses said. Brooks ordered Salceda to fix the property and return to court on May 14 to begin his sentence.

“It is one of the most deplorable buildings I’ve seen,” Assistant City Atty. Cheri-Beth Onyett said of the building at 1101 Santa Ana Blvd. As many as five adults live in some of the one-bedroom apartments, which rent for $400 and $450 a month.

“I’ve seen a lot of stuff in my time, and I thought I’d become somewhat hardened,” said Onyett, a former public defender. “But when I went out there, I actually cried because no one should live like that.”

In an interview Friday night, Salceda said he had tried to fix the property and believed that it complied with codes.

Onyett and other city officials who toured the property said the apartments lack heat, have exposed wiring and are infested with cockroaches.

One unit has a gas leak, and an unvented gas water heater sits in the laundry room, building inspectors and attorneys said. The balcony lacks a railing, and metal grates block some windows, officials said. Onyett said old refrigerators without doors are used as shelves, and non-functional electric stoves remain in the apartments with the burners ripped out.

“It’s extremely run-down,” said Jim Lindgren, manager of Santa Ana’s building and safety division.

Salceda, 50, has owned the property for 10 years and also owns a single-family house on Emmett Street in Santa Ana and a three-unit complex in Huntington Beach. He lives in a five-bedroom house in Irvine.

The judge’s order Friday came a year after Salceda pleaded guilty to criminal charges of substandard conditions and agreed to an informal probation in which he would pay a fine and fix the problems, Onyett said. City officials had been in contact with Salceda since 1990.

“I asphalted the whole place, put flooring in, fixed plumbing . . . I was pretty proud,” a distraught Salceda said. “In my estimation, everything was substantially complied.”

But Judge Brooks ruled that Salceda violated the probation by failing to pay the fines or modernize the building. Brooks then ordered the mandatory jail sentence.

In court Friday, Onyett said, Salceda’s attorney asked Brooks to postpone the jail sentence until after Mother’s Day, and the judge responded by saying that residents of the apartment building also have mothers. Brooks then scheduled the sentence to start May 14 for administrative reasons, Onyett said.

Brooks could not be reached for comment Friday evening.

Salceda, who said his sole business now is real estate, was a top aide for former Assemblyman Richard Robinson, the Garden Grove Democrat who served six terms in the state Legislature before his failed congressional bid against Robert K. Dornan in 1986.

“Every year since I’ve had those apartments, I lose money,” Salceda said Friday night. “I haven’t raised the rent for I don’t know how long. I give them a roof . . . I make no money.”

City officials celebrated the judge’s decision and said they hoped that it would help them crack down on other problem buildings.

“It certainly will go a long way in serving notice that when a slumlord is served notice by a code enforcement officer they would be wise to pay attention,” Lindgren said. “I think it sends a message to property owners that Santa Ana is taking a real hard look at this situation. I think the courts are on our side.”

Jim Marquez, a neighborhood activist who followed the case and attended Friday’s court hearing, also praised the ruling.

“I don’t think anyone . . . should live in the mess that that building was,” said Marquez, who visited the apartments along with Judge Brooks. “It looked like the building was going to fall apart. It doesn’t look like any maintenance has ever been done except Band-Aid work.”