Apartment Owner Pleads No Contest to Slum Charges

The owner of an Exposition Park apartment building has pleaded no contest to criminal slum violations that include exposed wiring, illegal locks that could trap tenants in a fire, and a gas pipe sticking out of the wall that could fill the building with gas, the Los Angeles city attorney’s office announced Wednesday.

The building’s former manager is still wanted on an arrest warrant.

Leslie A. Williams, 61, of Compton was ordered to pay $4,344 by a Municipal Court judge after he pleaded no contest to five health and safety violations at the building he owned on South Figueroa Street, said Deputy City Atty. Michael R. Wilkinson.

Last spring, when the building was inspected, it had exposed live electrical wires and was infested with rats and roaches, Wilkinson said.

In one apartment, a heater had been removed, leaving an uncapped natural gas pipe protruding from the wall. Wilkinson said the valve on the pipe could be easily turned to an open position, even by a child, creating a danger of asphyxiation and explosion.

Other apartments had illegal double-bolt locks, which required a key to open from the inside. The locks could trap tenants in a fire, said Wilkinson, a lawyer with the city’s Slum Housing Task Force.

Williams boarded up the apartment house in June and the city has since placed a security fence around the property, Wilkinson said.

He also said the building’s former manager, John Henry Jones, 59, of Exposition Park, has repeatedly failed to appear in court.