Slumlord Is Caught After 8 Years as Fugitive

A man who once declared he would “rather be dead” than serve jail time--after a conviction that marked him as one of Los Angeles’ most notorious slumlords--was captured Friday in New York state after eight years on the lam, authorities said.

Vijaynand Sharma, 48, was arrested in Liberty, N.Y., a rural village nestled in the Catskill Mountains, ending a run that investigators believe took him to Scotland, Canada, India and Fiji--as well as to Rancho Palos Verdes and to more pedestrian locales such as Stateline, Nev.

Sharma had been living under an alias in the town for at least a couple of years, Los Angeles City Atty. James Hahn said. He was arrested in a parking lot where he was waiting to meet a female companion, according to the chief local prosecutor, Sullivan County Dist. Atty. Stephen F. Lungen.

“We’re just happy he’s in custody,” Hahn said. “Finally, he’s going to have to face the music.”

Sharma has been sentenced by Los Angeles judges to 23 months in jail. But because of probation violations, he could be facing 56 years behind bars, Hahn said.

A Liberty Town Justice Court judge late Friday afternoon ordered Sharma held without bail in the county jail in Monticello, N.Y. Another hearing is scheduled Monday in Sullivan County Court.

Hahn said he will initiate extradition proceedings if Sharma does not choose to return voluntarily to California. Lungen said Sharma plans to fight extradition.

A native of Fiji who came to California when he was 17, Sharma once bought and sold Southland properties with regularity.

In the mid-1980s, he reportedly took in about $90,000 a month from rents on run-down units where, according to authorities, broken windows, plumbing, electrical wiring and fire safety equipment were left unrepaired and rats and vermin abounded.

In various interviews, Sharma denied that he was a slumlord, saying, “That is a harsh word.” He once said he was “like a social worker” who helped provide housing to the city’s poor.

In 1986, Sharma was fined $1,700 and placed on probation after pleading guilty to failing to provide water to tenants at two apartment buildings in Koreatown and Hollywood.

After an April 27, 1987, fire in another of Sharma’s buildings, he was convicted of a probation violation--for fire code hazards--and sentenced that August to 90 days in jail.

Sharma was convicted in November 1987 on 112 criminal counts for housing violations at five properties, all near downtown Los Angeles. The case marked the largest ever brought against a single landlord in the city.

Upon hearing the jury’s verdict, Sharma said: “I am a victim of circumstances. So was Jesus Christ.”

Each of the 112 counts carries a six-month jail term--adding up to 56 years. In December 1987, Municipal Court Judge David Doi sentenced Sharma to 20 months in jail and ordered him to pay $153,000 in fines.

The next month, Sharma fled.

In September 1988, he was captured by the FBI in New Jersey. But after a New Jersey court set bail at $20,000, he posted the bond and disappeared again.

In 1991, he surfaced in Scotland, running a bed and breakfast on the outskirts of Edinburgh. He said in an interview at the time that he missed California and described Scotland as a freezing “hellhole.”

“Being a fugitive,” he added, “is no fun.”

Though Los Angeles authorities were well aware of Sharma’s whereabouts in Scotland, he could not be returned to the United States. The U.S. extradition treaty with the United Kingdom does not include misdemeanor convictions.

Authorities tracked Sharma to India and Canada and believe he also went to Fiji, Deputy City Atty. Richard Bobb said Friday. Wherever he went, it was under aliases such as Alexander Durosaux, Joe Comaeux and Joe Ngaue.

At one point in 1992, Sharma was believed to be back in California, living in his sister’s Rancho Palos Verdes mansion. That summer, police searched the house. But he was gone.

Last month, Bobb said, another Sharma sighting was reported--this time in Stateline.

Meanwhile, an anonymous caller tipped Los Angeles authorities that Sharma had been living for the past few years in Liberty, N.Y., Bobb said. There, Sharma was using the name Devan Rao and was once again a landlord, Bobb said.

He was, in fact, known to Liberty police--but only because he was the “complainant in a case,” a traffic matter, Lungen said.

After Liberty police were notified of Sharma’s identity, they staked out his house, Lungen said.

On Friday morning, Paul Hans, an off-duty investigator for the local district attorney’s office, spotted Sharma’s female companion and decided “on a hunch” to follow her, Hahn said. The woman--whose identity has not been released--drove to a parking lot where Sharma was waiting, Lungen said.

Liberty Police Chief Mike Ward and Det. Robert Poplowski arrested him shortly afterward, Lungen said.