Back in 2000, Javier Ovando became the poster child for the Rampart Scandal when the City of Los Angeles paid him a $15 million settlement -- the largest in LAPD history -- because rogue LAPD Officers Rafael Perez and his partner Nino Durden had shot him and framed him for crimes he didn't commit.
Ovando, left paralyzed from the waist down by the shooting, used some of the money to buy a mansion atop Topanga Canyon just over the ridge from the San Fernando Valley.
His new troubles began when he tried to sell the 6,000 square-foot house on Bellini Drive.
The buyer, a real estate agent and businesswoman named Nadya Mahdavi. agreed to pay nearly $2 million for the house and moved in with her family before the deal closed, according to attorney Gregory Moreno, who represents Ovando.
But a dispute arose over demands made by Mahdavi for a huge commission on the sale, leading to a confrontation on June 22 and Ovando facing charges over threats he allegedly made. A week later, he was arrested again after a high-speed car chase with Glendale police officers.
"He's in pitiful shape and under care," Moreno said.
The deal to sell the house fell through and Moreno got an order to evict Mahdavi, who by then had a warrant out for her arrest for failing to appear in Van Nuys Municipal Court on four misdemeanor charges involving the illegal conversion of a single family house into three apartments in Woodland Hills.
After Mahdavi and her family left the house, Ovando's relatives found the house in total disarray and reported the Sheriff's deputies that $60,000 in property was missing -- four crystal chandeliers, a fireplace mantel, a pool table, a microwave, 35 door knobs, 20 curtains, three trash cans and a mailbox among other items.
The Sheriff's report was labeled "suspicious circumstance grand theft," but no charges have been filed.
(Visit Ron Kaye's Web site here.)
