GLENDALE : Evicted Man Sought in Building Damage

A businessman who was being evicted for failing to pay rent on a two-story meeting hall apparently took revenge on his landlord by trashing the building and causing an estimated $250,000 in damage, Glendale police said Friday.

Investigators were still dusting for fingerprints late Friday in the defiled interior of Stevens Hall, 701 S. Central Ave., and would not immediately release the name of the person they were seeking for questioning. But they said the man who rented the facility, which consists of two banquet halls, a kitchen and other rooms, is the “prime suspect” in the case.

“There’s extensive damage throughout the bottom floor,” police spokesman Rod Brooks said. “Floor tiles were torn up with hammer blows, walls were literally knocked down, the drywall has holes punched in it, and some major commercial kitchen appliances have been stolen.”

Acid had also been poured on the carpets, and the Fire Department’s hazardous materials unit was called in to neutralize the substance, Brooks said.

Among the items stolen were a piano, a restaurant-style food preparation table and six antique chairs worth $20,000 each. The chairs are owned by a local Masonic Temple chapter and were stored on the property for meetings, police said. An air-conditioning unit was also pulled out of the wall and stolen.

The owner of the building, Harout Yepremian, could not be reached for comment, but police said Yepremian and the tenant had apparently been involved in a dispute over back rent and the tenant was due to be evicted from the building Friday.

But when a member of the Yepremian family went to the building early Friday to see whether the building had been vacated, the front entrance was unlocked and the damage was discovered, according to the police report.

Police said there were no witnesses to the crime and they are not sure exactly when the damage was done, although it was believed to have been within the last two days.