With 35 Suits Filed Over House, Judge Decides to Inspect It Herself

Elena Zagustin’s neighbors say they have complained for decades about unhealthy and potentially dangerous code violations at her Huntington Harbour home. This week a Municipal Court judge will see firsthand what all the fuss is about.

Amid a litany of complaints in a small claims court about the property’s condition, Judge Mary Fingal Erickson said Monday that she will inspect the property at 9 a.m. Wednesday.

“We could go to midnight to hear all these claims,” Erickson said. “One quick way is to just go out there.”

Neighbors have complained for years about human waste dumped in the yard, rat and cockroach infestations and fears that fire will break out in the house, which they said is so jammed with debris that the inside of the garage looks like a trash compactor. Thirty-five small-claims lawsuits are pending against Zagustin.

A professor of civil engineering at Cal State Long Beach, Zagustin has denied the allegations, offering rambling monologues Monday about harassment and a neighborhood conspiracy to drive her from her house.

“I use the toilet,” said Zagustin, dressed in sandals, dark slacks and a sweater, her graying hair in a ponytail. “I do not dump things outside. I have no rats. I don’t cook in the house. I eat out all of the time. I’m a vegetarian.”

Zagustin said she is a Nevada resident and stays in the Huntington Harbour house only occasionally.

Erickson heard 25 of the cases Monday. After Wednesday’s visit to the upscale Huntington Beach neighborhood, she will hear the remaining cases Nov. 24.

Erickson denied Zagustin’s motion to postpone Monday’s hearing, consolidate the claims and hear them in conjunction with a cross-claim she filed Friday in Orange County Superior Court seeking damages for “extreme emotional distress” caused by “constant harassment and stalking.”

Zagustin has filed similar unsuccessful claims in the past, accusing neighbors of following her to the grocery store and causing the death of her father a few years ago.

Monday’s session marked the second time that neighbors have faced Zagustin in small-claims court, where damages cannot exceed $5,000 and neither party may be represented by a lawyer.

Initially, 24 neighbors filed claims and won judgments in 1994, neighbors testified Monday. Those judgments remain unpaid; Zagustin transferred her properties to a living trust and filed for bankruptcy four times, residents testified. With interest, the total is now $140,000, said David Flynn, who lives across the street from Zagustin. He is one of the small-claims plaintiffs and has spearheaded efforts to force Zagustin to improve her property.

Conditions at Zagustin’s home and at other residential properties she has owned in Orange County first received public attention in 1988, when authorities removed her ailing father from the Huntington Harbour home. They also sealed up the house and jailed her on an outstanding warrant for code violations at a Santa Ana property. Authorities said the problems there included overcrowding, damaged walls and plumbing and vermin infestation.

Neighbors said in court Monday that the Huntington Harbour house has remained basically unchanged.

Residents testified that over the years Zagustin has threatened them with an ax, harassed them and frightened their children. They told stories of Zagustin sleeping in her car in the parking lot of a nearby supermarket and using the store’s restroom for bathing.

Zagustin denied all of those allegations.

Erickson tried to keep the neighbors focused on the problems within the past year, the period covered by the current cases, but she had little success. The history of the dispute, which dates back to when Zagustin moved in with her parents 30 years ago, kept coming up.

Other complaints were as recent as Sunday night.

“I was barbecuing just last night,” testified Taylor Richardson, who has lived next door for 29 years. “The stench from her windows, which she keeps open, was just incredible.”