Landlord Accused of Arson Claims He Is Just a Scapegoat

The La Habra landlord accused of setting two of his apartment buildings on fire and attempting to burn another proclaimed his innocence in a jailhouse interview Thursday and said fire investigators are making him a scapegoat because they can’t find anyone else to blame for the blazes.

“I looked at the police report and I said to myself, ‘My God, I don’t do that.’ They never have proof,” said Gheorghe Alexandroai, a 63-year-old Romanian immigrant. “Police not found anybody else, so they think the owner is guilty.”

Alexandroai pleaded not guilty Tuesday to eight arson-related charges and is being held at the Orange County Jail on $1-million bail. Alexandroai allegedly set the two fires and twice attempted to burn another building to collect insurance payments, Orange County Fire Battalion Chief Dan Runnestrand said Thursday.

During a half-hour interview in the jail, Alexandroai, dressed in an orange jail uniform, appeared calm, repeatedly and emphatically denying all the accusations against him.

“It is not true,” he said, shaking his head. “Absolutely not true.”

Alexandroai said he believes disgruntled tenants he evicted at each location are responsible for starting fires that damaged five of his properties in the past two years.

“I have evidence of evictions in each building that caught fire,” he said. “I believe people were against me. These people got me in trouble.”

Alexandroai was arrested shortly after an April 7 blaze that caused $50,000 damage to one of his eight-unit apartment complexes on Ball Road in Anaheim. Prosecutors contend that Alexandroai set that fire and another one in January that caused $12,000 damage to a building in the 8600 block of Cerritos Avenue in Stanton.

Alexandroai is also charged with attempted arson on Nov. 18 and March 2 at a second property he owns in the 1500 block of Ball Road in Anaheim.

In addition, Riverside County authorities have reopened their investigation of a September, 1992, fire at a single-family home in Mira Loma owned by Alexandroai. The fire was originally attributed to electrical problems and caused $25,000 in damage, mainly to the home’s attic.

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Investigators said there are also similarities between those fires and an early morning blaze in August, 1992, at another apartment building Alexandroai owns in the 8600 block of Cerritos Avenue in Stanton. Alexandroai has not been charged in that fire, which was also attributed to electrical problems.

“We haven’t officially reopened our investigation of that fire,” Runnestrand said. “But we have taken note of the similarities, and it’s possible that he could be charged.”

Prosecutors also have said they are considering whether to file attempted murder charges against Alexandroai.

Fire investigators from Garden Grove, Anaheim and the Orange County Fire Department began comparing notes last month after they noticed the similarities in the incidents at the buildings owned by Alexandroai.

They were preparing to serve a search warrant against him when the April 7 fire on Ball Road occurred, officials said. On March 2, the search warrant said, firefighters responding to tenants’ calls that they smelled gasoline at 1541 W. Ball Road in Anaheim found seven one-gallon plastic milk jugs filled with gasoline in the attic.

They also found plastic cat litter pans that contained gasoline and receipts for some of the items, allegedly purchased at a store half a mile from Alexandroai’s home.

Alexandroai said Thursday that he knew nothing about the milk jugs and had not bought them.

There were no deaths or injuries in any of the fires. But in the two most recent ones, tenants, some of whom were sleeping, were quickly evacuated from the buildings by other residents and firefighters.

Many tenants expressed shock and anger after learning of the landlord’s arrest last week. Alexandroai said he is willing to relocate any fire victims into vacant units in his other buildings.

“Thank God, nobody is dead,” he said. “I feel very bad. I don’t understand anything that happened. I put my hands on my heart and I say I don’t understand anything that happened.”

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Prosecutors have portrayed Alexandroai as a threat to society, a man who showed little regard for life and property when he allegedly set the fires. They asked that his bail be set at $1 million because they fear that he may flee to his native Romania, where his three grown sons live.

In contrast, Alexandroai described himself as a hard-working man who has never had trouble with the law during his 20 years in the United States, “except for a few parking tickets.” He also said he has no intention of trying to leave the country.

“I pay my bills ahead of time,” he said. “I’ve never had a problem with a bank or with credit cards or for not paying anything. I take care of my business.”

Alexandroai said he has about $1.5 million in assets and has no reason to want to collect insurance money. In 1992, he received $217,000 in insurance money from Farmer’s Insurance Group for a fire at one of his Stanton properties, according to the search warrant.

“I didn’t take that money for myself,” Alexandroai said of the settlement. “People think I put that money in my pocket. That money went to a contractor” who, Alexandroai said, repaired the building.

But according to the search warrant, a Stanton building inspector told investigators that the repairs made with the insurance money were unnecessary or upgrades that tenants had asked for before the fire struck.

If convicted on all charges, Alexandroai faces up to 20 years in prison. But that possibility did not appear to worry him Thursday.

“I believe I will never have to be in jail, because they have to prove this,” he said. “I can prove that I was not there. I was home when the Fire Department called.”