Prosecutors obtain 4 arrest warrants as LA continues battle against gigantic billboards
By APThursday, March 4, 2010
LA prosecutors seek 4 for breaking billboard laws
LOS ANGELES — City prosecutors have obtained arrest warrants for four people connected to giant billboards at an intersection near the site of the upcoming Oscars, days after they jailed a man accused of putting up a separate eight-story supergraphic ad there without a permit.
Judge Mildred Escobedo issued the arrest warrants accusing the four defendants of misdemeanor counts of violating the city’s municipal code, including a ban on the installation of new supergraphics, according to court records reviewed by the Los Angeles Times Wednesday.
City Attorney Carmen Trutanich also secured misdemeanor criminal warrants against four companies connected to the two sites where signs were hung, the Times reported.
The defendants include the buildings’ owners, an advertising company and a sign installer.
One of the defendants, Alexander Kouba, planned to turn himself in and would contest any charges against him, his lawyer Steve Madison said.
A Los Angeles Police Department spokesman did not immediately know Thursday if the arrests had been made. A spokesman for the city attorney’s office declined to comment.
The warrants appeared to be another escalation in the city attorney’s war against large unpermitted billboards.
Los Angeles businessman Kayvan Setareh was jailed on $1 million bail for hanging an enormous ad for the movie “How to Train Your Dragon” last week on a Hollywood Boulevard building he owns near the Kodak Theatre, the site of Sunday’s Academy Awards.
After he agreed to take down the sign, his bail was reduced to $100,000, which he paid.
The city attorney’s office also filed a civil complaint last week against a business accused of installing supergraphic signs at 12 other Los Angeles locations.
Information from: Los Angeles Times, www.latimes.com
