Clash of the Vigilantes : 2 Crime-Fighting Groups Have New Foes--Each Other

VAN NUYS —  The battle against street crime along Sepulveda Boulevard has a new set of combatants--neighbor against neighbor.

On a crime-ridden corner along the boulevard, two radically different groups are clashing over how to eliminate crime in their neighborhood. It’s a clash of personalities as much as tactics.

The town may not be big enough for the both of them.

Self-proclaimed citizen crime-fighter Mary Lou Holte complains that a Neighborhood Watch group led by Joseph and Mary Williams has invaded her turf on the northwest corner of Vanowen Street and Sepulveda Boulevard. She said the group’s effort to scare away prostitutes and their customers by picketing the boulevard is an ineffective publicity stunt.

The Williamses say that Holte’s one-woman patrol against crime during the past several years has netted only publicity for Holte and has done little to put a bite in crime.

In the middle of the spat are the police--and a controversy over citizen patrols’ effectiveness and how they should operate. The debate has even drawn national attention, with Holte appearing on nationally televised shows such as “Larry King Live,” “20/20” and, with Joseph Williams, on “The Jerry Springer Show.”

“The whole thing is out of control,” said Holte, 45, who makes her headquarters at a doughnut shop on the corner of Vanowen and Sepulveda. “It’s called jealousy. They’ve tried to tear my program apart. I’m talking about the police and (the Williamses’) little community watch group. It’s dividing and conquering the neighborhood.”

“She wasn’t doing any good,” countered Joseph Williams, 52. “She wasn’t chasing any prostitutes away. I feel sorry for her, but the woman was out there for some sort of glory.”

Neither Holte nor the Williamses’ group has any formal police training in how to identify criminals. Police have not discouraged their efforts but also express concerns about their safety.

“I can understand the neighbors’ plight,” said Sgt. Larry Mauldin of the Van Nuys Division vice squad. “One doesn’t want to prompt vigilantism, but sometimes people have to do what they have to do.”

Both groups wince at the term “vigilante.” They are merely citizens, they say, trying to take back the streets they love.

Since at least the 1970s, say police and neighborhood residents, Sepulveda Boulevard has been a favorite marketplace for prostitutes, drug dealers and their customers. Residents complain that much of this illegal activity flows into their neighborhoods as prostitutes perform lewd acts in parked cars and drug addicts toss dirty syringes in the street.

For years, vice officers at the Los Angeles Police Department’s Van Nuys station have conducted a number of sting operations to combat the crime problem and, last year, received $15,000 from City Councilman Marvin Braude’s office to step up arrests.

During the past three years, one motel, a mini-mall and a convenience store along the boulevard have been ordered by authorities to hire security guards, erect lights or take other measures to combat crime.

Last month, the city gathered testimony from angry residents at a public hearing to consider similar actions against five Sepulveda Boulevard motels suspected of catering to prostitutes and drug dealers. No ruling has yet been made.

But residents have grown tired of waiting for others to solve the crime problem.

Holte’s crusade began six years ago, she said, when she was nearly raped in an alley behind Sepulveda Boulevard as she was walking home. After suffering two broken ribs while fighting off her attacker, Holte formed the Town Keepers Action Group, an organization of residents, which began meeting monthly to pinpoint crime problems in their neighborhood or to share their concerns with public officials.

Then, in 1989, Holte took her crusade to the street. “I wasn’t going to be a victim,” said Holte, who lives on disability because of a congenital lung defect. “I was going to help others be safe.”

Attendance at Holte’s meetings varies, with recent gatherings attracting about 50 residents. She’s the only one, however, who actually hits the streets.

During her foot patrols, Holte quietly urges suspected prostitutes to leave the streets, chases street vendors and suspected drug dealers from corners, confronts motel managers about allowing prostitution and jots down the license numbers of cars she suspects carry drug dealers or prostitutes. She has also made several citizen’s arrests.

For years, Holte said, she was the lone citizen patrolling the street.

Then, in December, lumber salesman Joseph Williams said he got tired of seeing prostitutes strut along at the corner of Kittridge Street and Sepulveda Boulevard.

Williams collected several of the members in his 8-year-old Neighborhood Watch group and began parading on the troubled corner with video cameras and placards that warned both hookers and their customers to stay away.

Police said it is the first regularly organized effort to scare away prostitutes and customers from a San Fernando Valley neighborhood.

“I want to put the fear of God in them,” said Williams, who has been videotaping the activities and license plates of the suspected clients. “The neighborhood is angry.”

“I’ll be walking to the supermarket with my son and guys will pull up and ask ‘how much?’ ” said 25-year-old Kym Dunn, who recently carried a picket sign with her 1-year-old boy, Matthew. “I’ll say, ‘Get away from me. Can’t you see I’ve got a kid with me?’ ”

“We don’t confront anybody,” said Mary Williams, 51. “Normally, just walking with the signs is enough to do it.”

The Williamses’ efforts have since expanded into other regions of Sepulveda Boulevard. Earlier this month, the group acquired cellular telephones and walkie-talkies and began moving their pickets and video cameras to Sepulveda and Vanowen.

But it was on the airwaves, not a street corner, where Holte and Williams first clashed. During a nationally televised encounter aired this month on “The Jerry Springer Show,” the two bitterly criticized each other’s tactics.

Since then, the Williamses have begun carrying their placards and video cameras to the corner in front of the doughnut shop as well as other spots on the intersection. Holte says the Williamses are harassing her and want to stop her patrols.

“It’s very intimidating,” Holte said. “Because they want me to join their effort and stop what I’ve been doing. The battle started after I made national attention. There was no battle before that except the Police Department. Where were they five years ago?”

Mary Williams disagrees.

“That’s one of the worst corners in the Valley,” she said. “If she’s doing such a good job over five years, why has it been such a problem?”

Police acknowledge that the corner has been a magnet for crime. In 1992, residents and city officials worked together to impose operating restrictions on a 7-Eleven store in the same mini-mall because it attracted drug dealers and prostitutes.

But police will not say whether either side should make room for the other. The effectiveness of both has received mixed reviews.

“In the sense that she provides us with information on criminal activity, she’s a valuable resource,” Van Nuys station Capt. James McMurray said of Holte. “In the sense that she takes some of these situations into her own hands, she sometimes puts us in a situation where it costs more in police resources to undo a situation that didn’t need to happen in the first place.”

The impact of the Williamses’ group is also unclear. Although police say there is nothing they can do with the videotapes of license plates, some prostitutes say the pickets have discouraged them from frequenting the area.

“We’ve been avoiding that area because of them,” said one 22-year-old prostitute who was working farther up Sepulveda. “You lose a lot of business.”

But police expressed some concern.

“We’re glad that the citizens are out there doing that, but we’re also concerned for their safety, because a lot of the girls have pimps who have hired Southland gangs to protect them,” said Officer Andrew Neiman of the Van Nuys vice squad.

The conflict on the corner of Sepulveda and Vanowen is not expected to end soon.

“I will not be told by any group where I can go,” Holte said. “I’m not stopping my patrols.”

For his part, Williams said he will do whatever it takes, within the law, to scare crime away from the boulevard, no matter what anybody says.

“If it takes wearing a gorilla suit,” he said, “I’ll wear a gorilla suit.”