Galanter’s Neighbors Say Russell Ignored Plea

A group of Ruth Galanter’s neighbors Wednesday accused her political opponent, City Councilwoman Pat Russell, of ignoring their plea three months ago to do something about suspected criminal behavior at the house where the man charged with the May 6 knife attack on Galanter was living.

Galanter, who is recovering from her wounds at UCLA Medical Center, is challenging Russell for the Los Angeles 6th District council seat in a race that will be decided June 2. The lone suspect in Galanter’s assault is 27-year-old Mark Allen Olds, described by police as a heroin user who lived across the street from Galanter on Louella Avenue in Venice.

At a press conference organized by Galanter’s campaign staff, several residents said they never heard from Russell after sending her a letter in February, signed by Galanter and about 20 other people, complaining that the house where Olds lived had become a center of illegal activity, ranging from drug use to car thefts to vagrancy and fighting.

The neighbors said they had not regarded Olds as a troublemaker and did not mention his name in the letter.

Nevertheless, two of the neighbors suggested that the assault on Galanter might have been prevented if Russell had responded to their concerns.

“Maybe, if she had helped, this would not have happened,” said Theresa Munoz, who lives next to Galanter.

Russell said her office had no record of receiving the letter, although she said it could have been misplaced.

“It is possible for us to lose letters,” she said. “But if Ruth’s name had been on it, it would have flagged our attention.”

But Russell also said that judging from experience with problem houses in her district, it could take two years or more to force the owners of such places to make the changes sought by neighbors.

For example, she said, the city can shut down illegal boarding houses operating in single family neighborhoods, such as the Louella Avenue area, but only after inspectors are able to prove that the occupants are paying rent.

Eugenia Easton, the owner of the house where Olds lived, said she has been offering room and board to a number of young men over the last few years. She said they were down on their luck and that she wanted to give them a place to live. She said that while her boarders contribute to household expenses, they do not pay rent.

Neighbors contended that Easton has been unable to control the bad behavior of some her lodgers, and they said it was that behavior that led them to write to Russell.

Russell’s campaign press secretary, Kam Kuwata, dismissed the neighborhood press conference “as a publicity gimmick dreamed up by the Galanter campaign to make hay out of a tragic event.”

Kuwata said he doubted that the letter was ever sent, and he pointed to discrepancies and omissions in the version of the letter that was distributed to reporters by Galanter’s campaign staff.

One page of that version is dated Jan. 30, while another is dated Jan. 10. And while the neighbors said that the letter to Russell contained 20 signatures, there were none on the copies given to reporters.

The neighbors said they did not keep a copy of the signed letter. What was provided to reporters, they said, was the final draft of the letter written by Galanter on her word processor and stored on a disc. They said that one page of the final draft still bore the earlier date of the first draft.

Bea David, one of the neighbors, said she mailed the letter “around the middle of February.”