Fear and Loathing on Los Rios Street

Los Rios Street in San Juan Capistrano is not where you’d expect a tense, ugly story to play out. A two-block-long stretch where pepper and jacaranda trees frame one of California’s oldest neighborhoods, the street suggests peace and solemnity. The National Registry of Historic Places has recognized Los Rios Street as a historical site, and local residents proudly claim that an adobe on the street holds the record, at 134 years, for the longest continuous occupancy of any house in California.

Some of the modern history is less pleasant.

A trial that ended a week ago today was supposed to settle things once and for all. It would be nice to say it did, but no one is sure. Hostility and fear run so deep that it’s too early to celebrate anything. Scarier still is that the situation is strikingly similar to other scenes in other towns that had tragic endings.

As usual, this story has two sides. Depending on who you talk to, each side makes sense. The central figure, I suppose, is 55-year-old David Chorak, a longtime resident and antique dealer who lives with his wife and cocker spaniel. He is a man who by his own admission can be profane and who “sticks up for himself.”

To others, however, Chorak is a bully. They claim to fear him, so much so that a set of eight misdemeanor charges was compiled against him that involved alleged verbal threats and intimidation and at least one fight that left another man bloodied.

Last Friday, a jury spent less than 90 minutes in acquitting Chorak on all counts. Some jurors hugged him as they left.

Chorak’s enemies shake their heads at the verdict. One of them is Gil Jones, a city councilman and Los Rios Street resident. No jury verdict will change his opinion of Chorak.

“I live south of Chorak,” Jones says. “I just wish I could walk north and not feel threatened. My wife won’t go down there, and my grandkids are not allowed to.”

Jones says Chorak over the years has brandished a gun at him, left profanity-riddled phone messages and, in “the straw that broke the camel’s back” in March, shouted an expletive to Jones while Jones was in the car with his three grandchildren. That prompted Jones to press charges, and prosecutors then compiled a list of alleged grievances against Chorak that had been collecting dust.

Chorak says the case against him was motivated by Chorak’s opposition to the commercialization of the Los Rios District and his past criticisms of city government. He acknowledges that his antipathy to Jones is also personal: “All I can say is that in the early days, Gil Jones would come by and order me to cut my fence down. He didn’t like me and I didn’t like him. It was like the Hatfields and McCoys.”

Chorak says the fight that left another neighbor bloodied was self-defense, and an allegation that he tried to run someone over on the street was exaggerated. It was, he says, a response to a similar attempt by the same people against him the night before.

Chorak vehemently denies he is a bully or troublemaker. Jones insists that Chorak is “a very intimidating man.” Had the jury seen Chorak “in a different environment other than the courtroom,” it would have reached a different verdict, Jones says.

Jones says he still avoids Chorak’s house. “We’re afraid to go by there, really,” he says. “I’m concerned about what might happen. I don’t want an incident to happen that could affect my family or his. I don’t know what the solution is. There’s nothing that can be done. The whole thing is--in conversation this comes up, and this is our fear--every time I see something in the paper where there’s a guy who has a history of being rude and bullying and threatening to neighbors and ends up shooting somebody, I think of David. Maybe that’s not right, but I can’t help it. I just don’t know what he’s going to do.”

Chorak may hold the solution: He’s considering moving after nearly 20 years on Los Rios Street. “We’re leasing out and going to go somewhere where it’s quiet and let them [his opponents] know they ran us over,” he says.

“I’ve got a life beyond Los Rios Street. I want to get my money back. The jury says they robbed me and I want my money back. Once they return it to me, I’ll call it even. All I want is to be left alone and not be screwed with.”

Meanwhile, he’s hardly celebrating. “There’s no victory in this for me,” he says of his acquittal. “Absolutely none. I was incarcerated for a week. I lost my [antique] pump collection and most of my retirement fund [for legal fees], I was in court for two weeks. I didn’t win a goddamn thing. All I won was the acceptance of the jury.”

Typical, he says, that Jones and his other antagonists won’t accept the verdict. “They’re not satisfied with a win,” Chorak says. “They want to kick you in the ass on the way out.”

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Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by calling (714) 966-7821 or by writing to him at the Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or by e-mail to dana.parsons@latimes.com