Restaurateur Fined for Refusing Access

The owner of a North Hollywood restaurant was sentenced to two years’ probation and ordered to pay a $2,700 fine after refusing to allow a disabled woman and her service dog into the eatery, authorities said.

Van Nuys Municipal Judge Michael Knight sentenced Pogos Echuryan, 44, owner of Tasty Burger, 12525 Vanowen St., on Friday after a jury found Echuryan guilty of one misdemeanor count of illegally denying entry to a public place, said Mike Qualls, a spokesman for the city attorney’s office.

Echuryan refused to allow the victim, identified only as a 44-year-old Lancaster woman, into the restaurant with her service dog in January of last year. The woman, a paraplegic confined to a wheelchair, called police.

Police explained to Echuryan that the woman had a right to enter the restaurant with her Rottweiler, but the owner refused to allow both the woman and the dog inside, authorities said.

“He said he would admit her and not admit the dog after the law was explained to him,” Qualls said. “That was his position, which was still a violation of the law.”