Landlord Pleads No Contest to Child Discrimination, Tenant Harassment

By Mark McGuigan
Staff Writer

September 2 -- A Pico neighborhood landlord charged by the City with child discrimination and tenant harassment after allegedly trying to boot a family from their rent-controlled apartment pleaded no contest to both criminal counts last Thursday, City officials announced Tuesday.

In what Deputy City Attorney Adam Radinsky called “the most extreme case (of tenant harassment) we’ve seen in years,” the court ordered Jaroslava Liska to pay $5,530 in fines and give $500 for future Fair Housing education.

In addition to the fines, Liska, who is now on three years probation, must also attend a fair housing training program at the Housing Rights Center and post a paid advertisement in the local newspaper promoting Fair Housing.

“We think this is a fair resolution of these charges and the punishment fits the crime,” Radinsky said.

The City Attorney’s Office filed a criminal complaint against Liska in May under Santa Monica’s Tenant Harassment Ordinance following her repeated attempts to evict the six-member Vivanco family from their $654 per month apartment at 1171 Delaware Avenue.

The charges -- all misdemeanor -- allege that Liska engaged in a “pattern of harassment and discrimination” against Candido and Elvira Vivanco, including an attempt to coerce the couple into signing a new lease forbidding the birth of any more children.

“We’re concerned that this kind of thing goes on in this city in this day and age,” Radinsky said. “We don’t get many complaints about this kind of behavior. These cases can be difficult to prove and it takes courage for tenants to come forward.”

According to sworn statements by witnesses and family members, Liska forbade the family’s children from playing outside the building or having friends visit, repeatedly yelled at Mrs. Vivanco and her young children to move out of the property and stated that she did not want children living in the building.

The family, along with another woman -- Arika Traylor, an African-American mother of five who alleges she was denied a vacant apartment because she had children -- also filed a civil discrimination lawsuit in federal court alleging multiple
violations of city, state and federal fair housing laws.

The federal case has been stayed by mutual agreement of the parties pending the outcome of the criminal proceedings, said Dario Navarro, one of the attorneys representing the families. With the criminal case resolved, the plaintiffs will be moving to lift the federal court stay and proceed with pretrial discovery and trial.

"The plaintiffs are seeking both actual and punitive damages against defendant Jaroslava Liska in light of the malicious and overt nature of her discriminatory
misconduct as landlord," Navarro said.

The suit alleges that in 1987 after assuming ownership of the property, Liska started a campaign to eliminate low-income minority tenants with children in favor of single tenants.