This property on Lexington Avenue is part of a series of lawsuit City Attorney Mike Feuer has filed against property owners of drug houses that cause blight in Los Angeles neighborhoods. The latest suits have been filed against two South Los Angeles properties, including an apartment that sits across the street from a high school.
(photo courtesy of City Attorney’s Office)
City Attorney Mike Feuer said last Friday he filed lawsuits to prevent the sale and use of illegal drugs at two South Los Angeles properties, including an apartment that sits across the street from a high school.
“Gangs, drugs and guns are a lethal combination and corrosive to our neighborhoods — especially across the street from a school,” Feuer said. “My office will continue to fight aggressively to rid our communities of these epicenters of crime.”
One of the lawsuits targets Michael Hayden and Michelle Wilson, owners of a two-story, eight-unit apartment at in the 600 block of East 109th Place. The building is across from Alain LeRoy Locke College Preparatory Academy and a block from 109th Street Elementary School. City attorneys allege the apartment has been used by the Back Street Crips gang for the past four years to sell and store drugs, and to keep guns. The building is connected to 18 arrests made since 2011, and seven guns have been taken from the property by LAPD since 2012, the attorneys said.
The City Attorney’s office is seeking injunctions against the sale and storage of illegal drugs at the apartment, and for the installation of a video- monitoring system, better lighting, tenant screening and armed security guards. The injunction also would bar known gang members from getting onto the property, and could require the owners of the property to live at the apartment until the alleged criminal activity has stopped. A second lawsuit was filed against Tamara Brown-Siemu and Charlene Davis, who own a single-family home at in the 8700 block of Wadsworth Avenue.
City attorneys allege the Swan Bloods gang controls the property as a place to sell, store and use rock cocaine. LAPD has made 13 arrests connected to the property since January 2013. The lawsuit is requesting an injunction to prohibit selling and keeping drugs on the property and would evict members and associates of the Swan Bloods gang, requiring them to keep at least 1,000 feet from the house.
