Slumlord Starts House Arrest at Rundown Building : Courts: La Habra man must spend 60 days at Mid-Wilshire apartment house he owns. He disputes city’s allegations.

After a brief standoff at the front door, a convicted slumlord from La Habra began serving 60 days house arrest Friday in a run-down Mid-Wilshire apartment building he owns after failing to fully comply with a court order to make long-needed repairs.

Joseph G. Tabello, 62, was sentenced to spend the holidays in his 840 S. Hobart Blvd. building by Los Angeles Municipal Judge Gregory Alarcon after a recent reinspection showed broken fire doors, missing fire extinguishers and cockroach infestation in the six-story structure. Under the court order, Tabello cannot leave the building except in case of emergency and must remain in Unit 408 from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. daily.

Deputy City Atty. Michael R. Wilkinson said a survey this week of Tabello’s new quarters revealed chunks of loose plaster on the floor, two unhooked refrigerators and one unhooked toilet in the living room and what appeared to be the head of a four-cylinder auto engine on a kitchen counter. The prosecutor added that Tabello’s view is of nearby rooftops.

But the landlord did not go quietly into his temporary digs.

Facing a phalanx of TV news crews, he at first refused to emerge from the 103-unit building Friday morning to be outfitted with an electronic ankle monitor designed to keep track of his whereabouts.

After Wilkinson threatened to go back to court and seek additional sanctions, Tabello finally stepped outside.

Asked by reporters to respond to the city’s allegations, Tabello, sporting a salt-and-pepper beard, said they were untrue, employing a host of two-syllable epithets to make his point.

He should not be held responsible for the lack of smoke detectors in certain bedrooms, Tabello added, “because how would I know there are . . . children living in the closets?”

“You’re making a mockery out of me,” the landlord added. “I can’t change the lifestyles of certain tenants. I’ve helped the poor. I’ve helped the needless.”

Wilkinson said later he insisted that Tabello come outside because Alarcon’s court order specified that he surrender in front of the building.

Besides, he said, “having the news media cover this is an important part of the deterrent. The most effective way is not only prosecuting repeat violators but letting the public know.”

Tabello’s son, George, felt otherwise. “What’s the matter, isn’t O.J. on trial today?” he shouted at the cameramen.

Three months ago, Tabello was convicted of slum violations for the third time in eight years after pleading no contest to 12 violations of fire, health, and building and safety codes, according to the city attorney’s office.

Although Tabello recently corrected some violations in the building, others remained unrepaired, Wilkinson said.

Tabello owns three buildings on the block and more than $9 million in property in Los Angeles and elsewhere in the state, Wilkinson said.

“This office does not go and ask for house arrests except in the most serious situations where someone has a record of not complying with the law,” the prosecutor said. “Some get the word fairly early and some we don’t file cases against because repairs get made.”

Wilkinson said that two or three Los Angeles slumlords a year are sentenced to house arrest and that “the deterrent value of doing it occasionally sends a message to other owners.”

However, not all slumlords clean up their acts after being placed in their apartment buildings. Dr. Milton Avol, who gained national notoriety in the mid-1980s as the first Los Angeles slumlord sentenced to house arrest, has continued to make headlines for the poor condition of his rental properties.

Last year, Avol was ordered to pay $16,000 in fines and costs and complete 200 hours of community service for code violations at a 93-unit apartment complex on Western Avenue. The retired neurosurgeon was also cited for a variety of violations on rental homes he owned in an unincorporated area surrounded by Palmdale.