LA City Attorney sues homeowners over alleged gang activity at properties

Move seeks to declare the two San Fernando Valley houses public nuisances

Mike Feuer with 14697 Plummer Street in Panorama City and 13285 Corcoran Street in Pacoima (Getty, Google Maps, iStock)
Mike Feuer with 14697 Plummer Street in Panorama City and 13285 Corcoran Street in Pacoima (Getty, Google Maps, iStock)

The Los Angeles City Attorney’s office is suing the owners of two San Fernando Valley homes that were the sites of alleged gang-related shootings and other violence.

City Attorney Mike Feuer wants a judge to declare the homes public nuisances, and bar several men associated with the alleged gang activity or shutter the properties entirely, according to the Los Angeles Daily News.

The lawsuits were filed against Hovo Stepanian, 59, for the property he owns at 14697 Plummer Street in Panorama City; and Detroit Dumas, 76, for his property at 13285 Corcoran Street in Pacoima, according to the report.

Police responded in large numbers to the Plummer Street property last year where prosecutors claim they found a cache of guns and drugs. The Corcoran Street home has seen five shootings since 2016, officials said.

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Stepanian doesn’t live at the Plummer Street address, and neither he nor Dumas were accused of any crimes related to the incidents.

But prosecutors allege that over the last 15 years, Dumas’ two sons have hosted parties for gang members “boisterously consuming alcohol, smoking, gambling, and causing disturbances, such as loud arguments and fistfights, at all hours of the day and night,” the report noted.

L.A. officials have used other laws and methods to target troublesome homeowners in the past. In 2017, the city attorney charged the owners of two “party houses” with misdemeanor criminal offenses. Last summer, the city cut power to a party house in the Hollywood Hills, but criminal charges were not filed.

[LADN] — Dennis Lynch