Market Cited as No. 1 Police Problem Loses Appeal

Chastising the owner of a Pacoima liquor outlet for acting as if he were “above the law” and for not obeying orders to control drug- and alcohol-related crimes around his store, the Los Angeles city Board of Zoning Appeals on Saturday denied an appeal of a ban forbidding him to sell liquor.

Board members agreed with zoning officials that Farah Ammari, owner of the Pacoima Food Market, 13132 Van Nuys Blvd., had failed to prevent loitering or provide adequate security and lighting around his store, and had repeatedly ignored pleas by police and community leaders to keep his market from being “a public nuisance.”

The 4-0 vote to deny the appeal of the ban on sales came just a week after Ammari was cited by police for violating a 30-day suspension of his liquor sales license by the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

The suspension was imposed Jan. 3 after Ammari sold beer to an underage police employee.

Testifying at the hearing, police officials called the market the No. 1 problem among 400 liquor stores in a 60-square-mile area, and said that Ammari has sold drug paraphernalia to youths.

The store was one of three declared public nuisances in 1989 by community leaders and police as a result of arrests made in the vicinity of the stores for public drunkenness, narcotics sales and prostitution.

City Zoning Administrator Jon Perica ruled in November that the store’s permit to sell liquor should be revoked.

He said the two other stores that had been referred to as nuisances--Leon’s Liquor at 10973 Glenoaks Blvd. and John’s Liquor at 13101 Van Nuys Blvd.--had begun to follow operating guidelines set down by other merchants and neighborhood leaders.

Those guidelines were designed to prevent youths from buying alcohol and to discourage drunks and drug addicts from loitering, and Perica said the stores had become “assets to the community” by complying.

Ammari did not appear at Saturday’s hearing to plead his case.

In a request to the board to delay its decision, his lawyer, M.R. Ward, said the store owner had recently been shot and wounded in a robbery and was unable to attend.

Ward said he had been hired by Ammari the previous day, and had not prepared an adequate defense.

“He’s up and around on his feet, but his emotional and physical state to make a coherent statement in his defense is lacking,” Ward said.

The board, however, declined to continue the case. Vice Chairman Nikolas Patsaouras called Ammari’s absence a “delaying tactic.”

Also, police officials who testified at the hearing said they saw Ammari working at the store Friday night.

“It’s very distressing and sad that someone in this city and this country thinks they are above the law,” board Chairwoman Irene Olansky said.

Ammari’s son, who manages the store, said his father could not be reached for comment Saturday.

Ammari can still appeal to the full Los Angeles City Council when the case comes before it in a few weeks.

But he also will have to contend with the state ABC, which has temporarily suspended his liquor license six times since 1985 for violations.

Five of those were for sales of alcohol to minors.

The other was for sale of alcohol to an obviously intoxicated person, ABC Supervisor Lonnie Corley said in a telephone interview.

Corley said the ABC would probably have terminated Ammari’s license with the next violation.

Vice Sgt. Cary Krebs said Saturday the market is a continuing problem.

He said Ammari does not assist police when drug suspects they are chasing run into his store.

The suspects flee into the store and “almost run over Ammari, but he denies he knows where they went,” he said.

Krebs added: “No one can believe that this man cares about the community.

“This store is a blight on the community.”