DOWNTOWN : Community Service Is Slum Case Sentence

The owner of a nonprofit corporation formed to help house the homeless has been sentenced to perform 500 hours of community service after pleading no contest to charges of slum conditions at his 67-room residence hotel.

Los Angeles Municipal Judge Glenette Blackwell also placed Dondald Joseph Nall, 54, and his company, Peace House Inc., on three years’ probation and ordered that the Beverly Hotel at 1330 S. Olive St. remain closed. Nall cannot transfer ownership of the property without court approval, prosecutors said.

Nall pleaded no contest in October to 10 fire, health, building and safety code violations at the hotel.

Nall, an Apple Valley resident, took over ownership of the hotel a year ago, when the previous owner, who himself was convicted twice for criminal slum conditions, signed over the building to Peace House.

Prosecutors said Nall failed to obey repeated city orders to make repairs. City Slum Housing Task Force investigators said that during inspections last March and April, they found broken fire escapes, fire doors and smoke detectors; dangerous wiring and exposed wires, and accumulations of trash all over the four-story building.

Last July, after prosecutors filed criminal charges against him, Nall contended that the city had not given him enough time to fix the problems. He said he and the hotel’s residents had begun repairs.

But Deputy City Atty. Michael Wilkinson said Nall was given ample notice and that he could not use his nonprofit status to justify illegal activity.