Eviction Law Hits Accused, Family

When the city of Buena Park adopted a law this year that required landlords to evict tenants arrested on charges of narcotics and gang-related offenses in their buildings, civil libertarians cried foul.

But as legal proceedings began this month against the first group of renters facing eviction, many people--police and city officials and other neighborhood residents--say the ordinance is working just as it was intended to.

Take the case of Craig Boston, who was charged along with his wife, Debbie, with dealing methamphetamines from their rental house in the 8200 block of 4th Street. His wife, on parole at the time, pleaded guilty and is now serving a 16-month prison sentence.

Prosecutors dropped the charges against Craig Boston, but he and his family were ordered evicted anyway even though he has a clean record.

Boston is now searching the classified ads for a new rental in Orange County for him and his three teenage sons, but he doesn’t hold out much hope.

Since he spent all his savings on lawyers, he has no cash to spare for a security deposit on another apartment.

“I still have my constitutional rights,” said Boston, who works at a bottling plant in Anaheim and has less than a month left to move out. “The Buena Park police, they just have targeted my family--period.”

Boston’s attorney, Robert Tuller Jr. of Anaheim, said the police decision to evict Boston and his children not only is wrong but also unnecessary because Boston is no longer charged with anything and his wife is out of the house.

“I’m of the opinion that Buena Park’s stance is less than justifiable,” he said. “It’s subject to the personal interpretation of the police officers. We have police officers that can use this as a vendetta against any named individual.”

Several legal experts also have expressed concern that the ordinance is unconstitutional, mainly because the penalty occurs upon arrest rather than conviction, said Dan Tokaji, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

“We’re watching it very carefully,” Tokaji said Friday. “There are very serious constitutional problems with the ordinance.”

Los Angeles passed the first law of this type two years ago, and no one has challenged it so far. More than 160 people have been evicted from their homes under the measure, according to city officials.

Buena Park police Capt. Gary Hicken said the main intent of his city’s ordinance is to help law-abiding residents adversely affected by neighbors who sell or use drugs or who get into gang-related fights in their apartment buildings or rented homes.

“I can only assume the people who live next door feel better that they’re not there,” Hicken said about renters who are displaced under the policy.

Police said they used their discretion in evicting the Bostons based on the family’s history of drug arrests. In the last five years, officers have made 42 arrests at the house: six on drug-related charges, Hicken said.

“Every officer in the department knows about this place,” he said. “If we can’t make it [the ordinance] work for this one, we might as well forget it.”

Under the ordinance, letters are mailed to landlords informing them that a tenant has been arrested on drug charges or for a gang-related offense on the rental property.

Several weeks later a follow-up letter is sent ordering the landlord to evict the tenant--whether the latter is ultimately convicted or not. The police have the right to exercise their discretion about whether to evict a whole family when only one or a few of the family members are arrested.

Police have sent letters to landlords in three other cases involving rental units, besides Boston’s:

* The March 17 arrest of a woman and two men on suspicion of running a methamphetamine lab inside the garage of their apartment in the 8000 block of Artesia Boulevard.

* The March 21 arrest of a man living in the 8100 block of California Street March 21 on a charge of being under the influence of methamphetamines.

* The April 26 arrest of two women for drug possession in the 6400 block of Western Avenue.

Three of the four landlords have started the eviction process. Landlords who refuse to abide by the law can be fined up to $500 and charged with a misdemeanor.

“Right now, on first appearance, it looks like a good thing because it’s doing what it was set out to do--to reduce some of the drug activity in the city,” said Buena Park Mayor Gerald N. Sigler.

Crystal Sims of the Legal Aid Society of Orange County, which offers legal assistance to low-income residents facing eviction or other housing problems, said she has some concerns about the new ordinance but also understands why some landlords and tenants support it.

“We’ve dealt with apartment buildings that have had drug dealers operating inside, and we’ve had tenants coming to us to complain,” Sims said. “It’s kind of a double-edged sword.”

Nevertheless, Boston said the ordinance gives the police too much power, and there is little to stop officers from abusing the authority to evict people who cross them.

Still, Boston said his police-ordered eviction does have one bright spot:

“I’ll get away from the Buena Park Police Department.”