Elderly Couple Arrested in Tagging Case : Vandalism: Daughter is also accused. Police say they failed to stop youths they knew were spreading graffiti.

Los Angeles police will seek misdemeanor charges against an elderly couple and their 48-year-old daughter who allegedly knew about a group of graffiti taggers but failed to stop them, authorities said Friday.

It was the second arrest this year for Claudia Hurtz, mother of one of six juveniles who were also taken into custody for allegedly vandalizing property in Van Nuys and North Hollywood. She was released on $25,000 bail.

Also arrested Thursday and released on their own recognizance were William Hurtz, 74, and his wife, Mary, 79. Four of the six juveniles were arrested at the Hurtz home in the 6300 block of Ranchito Avenue.

The three adults were booked on suspicion of contributing to the delinquency of minors. Neither the Hurtzes nor their lawyers could be reached for comment.

Authorities said the arrests of adults in a tagging case is rare. Police allege that the adults knew about the criminal activity and failed to control the minors who participated.

“It was obvious to us that they knew that those kids were taggers, and they fostered the climate to encourage that activity,” said Cmdr. John Moran of the Los Angeles Police Department.

“There’s graffiti all over the walls on the inside, there’s graffiti on the outside, there’s graffiti on the cars and this is a house owned by the grandparents,” he said. “It’s quite obvious to anybody that the kids were doing graffiti . . . to their own house.”

One neighbor said she noticed groups of teen-agers hanging around the Hurtz home. But because William Hurtz had participated in several community efforts to keep criminals off their street, Deborah Sutton said she thought he was taking in troubled teen-agers so he could help them.

Sutton said a wall next to the Hurtzes’ small, well-kept ranch home would sport new paintings every day. She said she thought the boys were allowed to paint mural art on the wall as a way of keeping them from tagging.

“He is a good neighbor,” said Sutton, who has lived in the area for six years. “I thought he had a great concern with the neighborhood and keeping it clean. I can’t imagine he knew these things were going on.”

But another neighbor, who manages the apartment building across the street from the Hurtz home, said the Hurtzes must have known about the graffiti problem in the neighborhood. Gerard Saez, standing in his building’s garage, said the tagging has jeopardized his job.

As soon as prospective tenants see the graffiti, he said, they lose interest in renting.

In May, Claudia Hurtz was charged with aiding and abetting vandalism and supplying spray paint to minors. Police said a group of boys were passengers in her car early one morning when she stopped at a doughnut store. While she was in the store, the boys began spray-painting the area where the car was parked, and police arrested her when she got back in the car, prosecutors said.

The case was delayed until Dec. 7 after Hurtz agreed to seek psychiatric counseling and to avoid contact with juveniles other than her son, prosecutors said.

Times correspondent Thom Mrozek contributed to this story.