Woman Sued Over Trash in Yard Tries Again to Disqualify Judge

Elena Zagustin, the Huntington Harbour homeowner sued by 24 neighbors for keeping piles of trash in her yard, has filed a third lawsuit to disqualify a judge from hearing her contempt case.

Zagustin, a professor of civil engineering at Cal State Long Beach who is on leave, failed in two earlier attempts to remove Municipal Judge Caryl Lee, who has already ordered her jailed once. Lee is scheduled to preside at Zagustin’s contempt hearing June 29.

But in a lawsuit filed last month in Orange County Superior Court, Zagustin alleged that the judge already has decided she is guilty.

Deputy Public Defender James Merwin, one of several public defenders who has represented Zagustin since neighbors sued her in June, 1994, swore in a declaration that the judge “made it quite clear to me that she had already determined that [Zagustin] was guilty of contempt and that [Zagustin] would have the burden of changing the court’s mind.”

Zagustin’s neighbors won a $114,500 judgment in their lawsuit, but she hasn’t paid. The judge then ordered her to produce a list of her assets. When she did not, the judge ordered her jailed for a week for contempt of court.