GLENDALE : Commissioner Hands Off Credit Card Case

A Glendale Municipal Court commissioner has disqualified himself from taking the pleas of five men accused in an alleged countywide credit card scam, officials said.

Commissioner Daniel Calabro gave no reason for his action before transferring the case to Municipal Judge Joseph DeVanon’s courtroom, Deputy Dist. Atty. Greg Denton said.

The five suspects entered not guilty pleas Friday to felony charges including computer fraud, grand theft, receiving stolen property and forgery of a credit card, Denton said. If convicted, they could be sentenced to six to eight years in state prison.

DeVanon set the defendants’ preliminary hearing for Oct. 14.

Investigators believe the five were responsible for obtaining valid credit card numbers through customers using a Sun Valley gas station and other contacts. A computer helped encode those numbers onto blank credit cards, which were then used to pay for gas at pumps equipped with the automatic credit card feature, investigators said. The gas was then trucked back to the L&M; Gas station at 8579 San Fernando Road, they said.

The defendants were arrested July 1. Authorities--including local, state and federal officers--seized more than 200 fake and stolen credit cards, firearms and trucks believed to have been used to carry gasoline from stations as far south as Los Angeles International Airport, Glendale police said.

Those who entered pleas included North Hollywood residents Mike Zadikian, 22, Grigor Djaladian, 36, and Mkrtich Djaladian, 34; and Glendale residents Lev Iophe, 26, and Levon Djaladian, 23. Each remains free on $10,000 bond.

“Nobody knows the reason” Calabro disqualified himself, Denton said.

Denton said that in most cases, judges takes themselves out of cases when “they know one of the parties, (or) they have connections with the parties’ business. (So) they couldn’t be fair.”