Garbage-Ridden Home’s Owner Spared Jail Term

A college professor who faced a three-month jail term for defying demands to clean up her garbage-ridden Huntington Harbour home has made “real efforts” to comply with safety and health codes and does not deserve imprisonment, an Orange County judge ruled Friday.

Superior Court Judge Robert H. Gallivan stayed the sentence he imposed last month, saying inspectors reported the home is near full compliance with city laws. The judge congratulated Elena Zagustin on making “tremendous improvements.”

He still can impose the jail term if Zagustin’s property violates city codes during her three-year probation.

Several neighbors who attended the hearing in Westminster expressed shock at the decision, claiming that the judge failed to recognize what they called Zagustin’s recurring pattern of acting only when faced with penalties.

“She should be jailed. She has to learn her lesson that there are laws and rules to follow,” said next-door neighbor Beverly Goulette, who claimed “there is still debris piled up in her backyard that is combustible and is right next to my house.”

The decision is the latest twist in a bitter decade-long feud among neighbors that has captured national attention and generated so much controversy that it prompted city officials to form a team to identify unkempt homes. The standoff has also generated several lawsuits resulting in $300,000 worth of judgments against Zagustin, a professor of civil engineering at Cal State Long Beach.