Man Gets Year in Jail for Illegal Dumping

A Pacoima man was sentenced to a year in jail and ordered to pay $11,000 in cleanup costs this week after pleading guilty to illegally dumping hundreds of tires in three incidents in the San Fernando Valley, the Los Angeles city attorney said.

David Valencia Peralta, 22, was arrested Feb. 19, when police, who were investigating a series of illegal dumpings, pulled over an empty U-Haul truck he was driving in Pacoima. Peralta had been under surveillance since last November, after police received a tip that he was involved in illegal dumping, said Deputy City Atty. Victor Kalustian, who handled the prosecution.

Two 16-year-old boys told officers at the scene that Peralta paid them to dump tires behind a Smart & Final store on Van Nuys Boulevard in Panorama City. Police went to the location and found more than 750 tires.

Kalustian said Peralta rented U-Haul trucks to transport used automobile tires that businesses paid him to haul away. Instead of disposing of the tires legally, Peralta dumped them at locations in Panorama City and Pacoima.

City attorney’s spokesman Mike Qualls said Peralta’s “substantial sentence” will serve as warning to others engaged in illegal dumping.

“There certainly is a problem with illegal dumping in that part of the city,” Qualls said. “Unfortunately there are not a lot of prosecutions because it’s difficult to catch these guys.”

On Tuesday, Peralta was ordered by San Fernando Municipal Judge Alice Hill to begin serving his jail sentence Sept. 3.

Peralta, who also admitted to driving with a revoked license and violating his probation stemming from an unrelated conviction earlier this year, will be placed on probation for three years following his release, Qualls said.