Santa Ana : Criminal Charges Filed in Housing-Code Cases

The city has filed criminal charges against the owners of 10 slum properties, Deputy City Atty. Luis Rodriguez said.

The charges followed the filing in January of civil lawsuits against Dempsyand Joy Stocker and Dempsy’s mother, Bulah, owners of the 10 properties just south of the Civic Center.

Arraignment has been set for March 22, Rodriguez said.

The criminal charges against the Stockers are the latest move in the city’s crackdown on slum housing, begun nearly one year ago. Since the crackdown began, more than 100 lawsuits, civil and criminal, have been filed against several landlords.

The Stockers’ properties contain 14 houses, all of which have been cited for dangerous and unsanitary conditions, including electrical, plumbing and structural deficiencies and vermin infestation. In a warning to slumlords, Rodriguez said the city has no intention of relaxing its effort to force property owners to comply with the law. Criminal charges will continue to be filed against owners who openly refuse to abide by housing inspectors’ directives to clean up their properties, he said.

The case against the owner of another ramshackle dwelling, Delbert Scott, comes to trial April 30, Rodriguez said. Criminal charges were filed against Scott the same day the civil suit was filed against the Stockers.

Neither Scott nor any of the Stockers could be reached for comment Thursday.