Frank McHugh had been warned repeatedly that the railings on a third-floor walkway at one of his apartment buildings were so widely spaced that children could fall through.
Concerned for their kids, tenants used wire coat hangers to rig their own safety guards. McHugh left the problem unfixed until one day in October 1991, when 18-month-old Edgar Repreza plunged through the gap and slammed into the concrete about 20 feet below, suffering permanent brain damage.
"His brother, who was about 5 at the time, saw him fall," said Alison Baird, the lawyer who obtained a settlement of more than $1 million for the family. "It was terrible."
Despite the big payout, and the tragic consequences for a little boy and his family, the 1991 incident did not end a pattern of repeated health and safety violations at McHugh's buildings. Nor did it or other incidents spur public officials to force him to significantly change his practices.
For more than 50 years, McHugh, 84, has bought apartment buildings mostly in Los Angeles' poorer neighborhoods and filled them primarily with immigrant tenants. And for at least a generation, he has been investigated, cited and denounced by city and county officials. Almost three decades ago, then-City Atty. Ira Reiner accused McHugh of dealing in "blood money" and threatened to send him to jail.
But McHugh continued to buy more properties and build an ever-longer record of flouting health and safety codes.
Prosecutors say McHugh told them last summer that he owned more than 140 Los Angeles properties, which by various estimates housed more than 8,000 people. Many of his buildings have fallen prey to rats, cockroaches and mold, and are plagued by inoperative plumbing and rotting ceilings that cave in with regularity, according to court records.
Now, city prosecutors once again are seeking to shut McHugh down. In 2007, they charged him with multiple fire and health code violations. As part of a plea deal, he agreed last fall to sell all of his Los Angeles rentals within three years. The deal allowed him to avoid jail time.
McHugh, of Marina del Rey, has declined repeated interview requests. His lawyer, Harold Greenberg, says McHugh is complying with the court order and that he has been targeted unfairly by authorities.
His tenants and their advocates say they are waiting to see whether this latest attempt at enforcement will work, some expressing skepticism because of a long history of ineffective enforcement involving McHugh's buildings.
