#THE PRINT SHOP MORGAN HILL PRO#
Marshals Service and the LAPD wouldn't give me any answers, I called up two people who would.Īttorney Arnoldo Casillas, who specializes in police misconduct, doesn't see too many cases like Pena's but considers them "my pro bono responsibility" because they are so hard to pursue. His landlord had to strip out all the drywall and insulation. Pena had to toss out all his materials - ink toners, vinyl rolls, packing materials. Pena's travails make Job seem as lucky as that guy who recently won a $2-billion Powerball jackpot. Kelly Muniz replied that while Pena's claims "are under consideration, we are unable to comment further." When I sent a list of questions about Pena's case and also asked what the LAPD policy was when officers damage a business in the search for a suspect, LAPD Capt. 3 raid, Officer Drake Madison suggested I file a public records request. When I called up the LAPD's media department to confirm details of the Aug. Marshals Service said, "Our office cannot offer substantive comments regarding adjudication" of Pena's claim. The certified letter ended by providing Pena with the LAPD's address and the suggestion to "pursue your claim directly with" the department. Though marshals had pursued the fugitive to NoHo Printing, they argued that LAPD SWAT had engaged in the standoff, not them. When he replied with a detailed invoice for about $60,000, the agency denied him again.
Marshals Service initially rejected his claim, saying he hadn’t asked for a specific amount. city attorney’s office denied his claim in August with no explanation. Marshals Service stated that although the fugitive did destroy equipment, it was SWAT's tear gas that left NoHo Printing "inhabitable."Ī few years earlier, Pena had switched to a cheaper insurer, who said events like this weren’t covered under his policy. No neighboring businesses suffered damage. “You couldn’t be next to it for even a minute without gagging." The worst part, he said, was the stench of tear gas. “This is a $9,000 printer that the fugitive stood on and broke.” “Look, look,” Pena kept repeating while swiping through photos on his smartphone. Holes were smashed into doors, walls and even the ceiling, which the fugitive climbed into by placing a ladder on a copier. Client projects were strewn across the floor. Two days later, marshals let Pena return to NoHo Printing. “Out of 10 million businesses, that stupid dude chose mine.” “It was like a movie,” said Pena, shaking his head, his voice world-weary. He waited so long that the restaurant eventually asked him to leave because it needed to close. Popping sounds soon give way to plumes of tear gas.įor 13 hours, Pena waited in a nearby restaurant as the standoff continued with someone the cops said was a fugitive. They then stand down when Los Angeles Police Department SWAT vehicles roll into the parking lot behind the shop. YouTube footage shows marshals with heavy artillery and bulletproof vests taking positions around NoHo Printing and on nearby rooftops. Before he could shut the door, a man hit him on the shoulder with a metal object, kicked him out, then holed up inside. Marshals Service agents yelling and gesturing his way. Pena opened the back door, looked toward the street and saw U.S. 3 just after lunch, the 55-year-old was working on an order when he heard what sounded like a helicopter and someone on a megaphone. Industrial-sized air conditioner units and fans sat where display cases and T-shirt racks once were, a reminder of the day last summer when Pena’s life changed forever. What was once the showroom was now stripped down to nails, plywood and beams.
“It’s a very creative field of work, but not very profitable,” the Salvadoran immigrant told me half-jokingly as we walked inside his shop. He has stayed here even as this stretch of Lankershim Boulevard became sketchier, even as the COVID-19 pandemic forced him to lay off all his employees. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)įor 13 years, Carlos Pena has run NoHo Printing & Graphics in North Hollywood. Print shop owner Carlos Pena is dealing with the damage caused by a SWAT raid after a fugitive holed up in his North Hollywood store.
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