BOYLE HEIGHTS : Probation, Fines for Hotel Owners

Owners of the Hollenbeck View residential hotel who were convicted of city code violations were sentenced last week to two years’ probation and fined $500 each, plus court penalties.

Municipal Judge Ronald Schoenberg also ordered James V. and Gwendolyn G. Carone of Mission Viejo to pay $1,700 in court penalties in their July 7 sentencing.

“I wish we could quadruple this, but we have to go after them a building at a time,” said Deputy City Atty. Richard M. Bobb of the Slum Housing Task Force.

The couple was found guilty last month of six misdemeanor violations related to an abandoned refrigerator, burglar bars on a second-story window, a lock on a fire door, a leaking pipe, a damaged screen that was supposed to keep out rodents and an uncovered electrical fixture.

The 24-unit building at 2033 E. 4th St. has been brought up to code, Bobb said.

Court documents show that James Carone spent $55,000 repairing the three-story building and an additional $20,000 evicting tenants who were suspected of selling drugs or involved in gangs.

The Carones’ attorney, Victor M. Salerno, filed a notice of appeal with the court on the day of sentencing.

The only stumbling block to that, he said, is the expense. Transcripts of the court records alone could cost $2,000.

James Carone was vacationing in Laughlin, Nev., and could not be reached for comment.

The Carones were originally charged in November with 28 counts of health and safety code violations after city inspectors found large holes in walls, cockroach infestation, broken windows, illegal locks, leaky plumbing, exposed electrical wiring, a missing smoke detector, missing exit lighting and a damaged fire hose.

The jury acquitted them on most of the charges.