CdM man wants city to pay for eviction

Corona del Mar resident Leonard Porto has pared down everything in his tiny but neat studio apartment on Orchid Avenue to what can fit into his old, aquamarine Chevy Camaro.

“This is all it takes to keep me happy,” Porto said, gesturing to the 15-foot-wide apartment that’s painted a cheery yellow.

There’s a narrow twin bed wedged into an alcove and some shelving, one stocked with packages of shrimp-flavored Ramen noodles. Legal documents, neatly bound, meticulously stapled and tucked into plastic sleeves inhabit the other shelves.

After a lengthy legal battle with his elderly landlady’s daughter, who recently took control of her mother’s assets, a federal court judge has ordered Porto to move out of his home by Sunday.

He plans to have his stuff out of the apartment by today to show respect for the court, he said. Porto claims he has nowhere else to go and might end up homeless. He’s contacted a homeless shelter in Santa Ana to see if they have room for him, in case nothing else pans out.

Now he wants Newport Beach to pay him damages in excess of $75,000 for “severe and ongoing mental and physical stress” and “selective and vindictive enforcement,” among other claims.

Porto says his troubles began when his landlady received a notice last year from city officials stating that the converted garage apartment on Orchid Avenue he has inhabited for the past seven years might be an illegal unit. The property owner started eviction proceedings against him soon after and shut off his hot water, electricity and heat, he claims.

In a claim filed against Newport Beach earlier this month, Porto blames city code, which he says is discriminatory for his eviction.

The lot Porto’s apartment sits on, in the back yard of a well-manicured stone and stucco home, isn’t zoned for multifamily use. The city’s zoning codes fly in the face of federal fair housing laws, Porto claims.

“I’m a fighter,” Porto said. “I don’t get mad at people. I just go and do my homework.”

Porto picks up a thick stack of legal papers up off his desk.

“This is how I show my anger,” he said.

Newport Beach is still investigating Porto’s claim, and declined to comment further on the matter, Tara Finnigan, a spokeswoman for the city said Thursday.

Balboa Island attorney Richard Higbie, who represents the family that owns Porto’s apartment, maintains that he and his client gave Porto months to pack up his things and looked for a new place. He’s repaid them by harassing the real estate brokers who are trying to lease the main residence, and posting signs outside his home saying he’s getting evicted and had his utilities shut off, Higbie said.

“You’ve got a fella who is just — you have to have a lot of sympathy for him. The demands he makes are just for things that aren’t legal,” Higbie said. “I don’t know what his goal is here. He’s looking for a sense of justice that is just unique to him.”

Representing himself, Porto had his eviction proceedings moved to federal court, filing dozens of legal motions and racking up thousands of dollars in legal bills for his client, Higbie said.

“People get evicted from illegal units all the time,” Higbie said. “But he’s turned it into a situation in which everyone was gracious to a fault into something where he has been kicked around and oppressed, so he can cry and whine to get something in the court system that’s unfair.”

Porto jokes that he’s not really the litigious sort. He’s also suing the city of Laguna Beach after he got a ticket for scuba diving after a lifeguard ordered him out of the water because the conditions weren’t safe.

Representing himself, Porto is challenging the constitutionality of Laguna’s scuba diving ordinances.

“You could read into the fact that he did not have his own attorney,” said attorney Phil Kohn, who represents Laguna Beach in the matter. “I didn’t think much of his claims.”

A U.S. District Court judge tossed the scuba case out in April. Porto filed an appeal with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and vows to take the matter all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

He also fought a $35 ticket he got for walking on the beach in Corona del Mar after dark in 2003, taking his fight all the way to the California Courts of Appeal.

He lost.