Van Nuys Trash Company Faces Charges of Illegal Dumping

The Los Angeles city attorney’s office was talking trash Tuesday, bringing 12 criminal charges against a Van Nuys refuse company that allegedly dumped a truckload of trash at an apartment building because the owner would not pay a $1,200 bill incurred by a previous owner.

The charges were filed against Foothill Waste Reclamation Inc., accusing the company of dumping the garbage at an apartment house in the 9300 block of Sepulveda Boulevard in North Hills.

Foothill management could not be reached for comment.

Prosecutors filed 12 separate counts of illegal dumping because the trash was left for 12 days before the new owner, Phil Markowitz, paid $800 to have the mess cleaned up, according to a statement issued by the city attorney’s office. The maximum fine for each violation is $1,000, the statement said.

Prosecutors also said they would seek restitution for expenses that Markowitz incurred to have the trash picked up.

Miguel Chavez, a tenant, said he saw two men in a red and black truck with the word Foothill emblazoned on the side dumping trash behind the apartment building April 26.

Markowitz, who said he had three times refused the trash company’s demand that he pay a bill run up by the previous owner, said he sifted through the six-foot-high pile of trash a few days later and found some discarded envelopes from a business, the site of a previous Foothill trash pickup.

Arraignment is scheduled Sept. 12 in San Fernando Municipal Court.