SANTA MONICA—A landlord with a history of harassment was found in contempt of court on March 27.

 

Superior Court Judge Lisa Hart Cole found Isaac Gabriel in contempt of court for violating a 2010 court injunction that barred him from contact with past, present and future tenants by prohibiting him from coming within 10 yards of the tenants, according to a statement from Gary Rhoades of the City Attorney’s Office.

 

Judge Cole heard from several tenants who stated that Gabriel had frequently made contact with the tenants from the two apartment complexes he owns on 1007 Sixteenth Street and 1035 Fifth Street. The injunction explicitly stated that Gabriel must use a property management company approved by the City of Santa Monica to manage the apartments. One tenant told the judge that Gabriel had allegedly attacked him with a baseball bat in October 2013, according to the statement. Gabriel was fined $24,000 and ordered to county jail for five days.

 

The City Attorney’s Consumer Protection Unit will monitor Gabriel to ensure he follows the rules of the injunction.

 

The injunction originated from a civil trial from 2010 in which Gabriel was accused of sexually harassing a female tenant between 2005 and 2006, unlawfully entering various tenants’ units and illegally renting out a utility closet as living quarters, which the lawsuit defined as “uninhabitable space.” The court fined Gabriel $7,500 and slapped him with the injunction.

 

Gabriel has had a long history of run-ins with the City Attorney’s Office. In 1998, he was convicted of illegally locking out a tenant and taking the tenant’s personal property, according to a statement from the City Attorney’s Office. That case led to Gabriel being sentenced to 30 days of house arrest and 480 hours of community service. In 1999, Gabriel was charged with battery and harassment of a female tenant, but the case was settled when Gabriel agreed to repair the tenant’s unit, to halt any further contact with the tenant and to an additional year of probation.

 

In 2004, the City Attorney’s Office brought another civil lawsuit against Gabriel under the state’s Unfair Competition Law, which Deputy City Attorney Adam Radinsky said at the time was the first instance of that law being used against a landlord. Gabriel was alleged to have used bodily force against tenants, stole a tenant’s satellite dish, attempted to “defraud and coerce tenants into paying him extra money” and charging illegally high rent, among other charges which included violating his tenant’s right to privacy. The court ordered a judgment against Gabriel in the amount of $81,690.