After ‘American Idol' exec killing and other recent break-ins, Encino residents demand LAPD action

Los Angeles Times

5 days ago

Encino community leaders on Thursday asked Mayor Karen Bass to increase security following a deadly home invasion and a string of other break-ins in the San Fernando Valley hillside neighborhood.
'American Idol' music supervisor Robin Kaye and her rock musician husband, Tom DeLuca, were killed in their Encino home by an intruder earlier this month. The Hayvenhurst Avenue home of 'The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' star Teddi Mellencamp was also targeted last week by three intruders who jumped a fence and entered the property.
Two other burglaries occurred in recent weeks, including an incident on Ostrom Avenue, where a homeowner shot a 14-year-old intruder, according to residents.
The Los Angeles Police Department has responded to the uptick in violence by increasing patrols and adding measures such as officers on horseback.
But some neighbors are still too scared to leave their homes, said Rob Glushon, president of the Encino Property Owners Assn. 'People are afraid,' he told reporters. 'People are angry.'
Glushon and others leaders want Bass and the LAPD to create a real-time crime monitoring center at a local police station, similar to one in Beverly Hills. They also want a new police substation in Encino, drones to track suspicious cars and crime, license plate readers at major intersections, and weekly public meetings with LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell.
Bass spokesperson Clara Karger said some of the requests sought by Encino community leaders have already been added. In addition to increasing patrols, the city has deployed license plate readers, and is working with the L.A. County Sheriff's Department's Burglary/Robbery Taskforce on targeting organized crime rings, she said.
'Last year we took urgent action to successfully address a spate of crime in the Valley and our response efforts helped. We will continue to do all we can to keep Angelenos safe,' Karger said. 'Crime was down last year and homicide totals are on track to be the lowest in 60 years.'
A Zoom meeting with Bass, Councilmember Nithya Raman, state Sen. Henry Stern (D-Los Angeles) and Glushon and other neighborhood leaders is planned for Thursday night.
Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman met with Encino residents last week during a crowded town hall on the recent violence. He told the crowd last week that as a lifelong Angeleno, the twin killings were personal to him.
'The government owes you one thing and that's safety,' Hochman said. 'Robin and Tom didn't experience safety that night. Safety failed them.'
Kaye and DeLuca, who were both 70, had been dead inside their home for four days when officers found their bodies during a welfare check after a neighbor called police concerned that they hadn't seen or heard from them for a few days.
It marked the third time in recent months that LAPD officers went to a location in the San Fernando Valley after receiving a 911 call and left, only to return later to a homicide.
Menashe Hidra's body was found April 26 inside his fifth-floor Valley Village apartment after an assailant broke into a neighboring unit, jumped from the balcony to Hidra's unit and attacked him, investigators said.
Neighbors called 911 and reported hearing shouting and a struggle coming from the apartment. Officers responded to those calls, knocked on the door and left without finding anything. A 27-year-old man was later charged with killing Hidra.
The same day that Hidra's body was discovered, police found the body of Aleksandre Modebadze, who was beaten to death inside his Woodland Hills home. In that case, a woman inside the home called LAPD about 12:30 a.m. and reported three people had broken into her home and were beating her significant other before the call suddenly cut out, according to law enforcement sources.
Shortly before 1 a.m., officers arrived at the home but no one answered the door, the sources told The Times. Authorities found Modebadze's suspected killers hours after the incident.
Glushon said Thursday that the LAPD needs to examine its policy for entering homes. 'There's obviously a problem,' he said.
Locals also said Thursday that they are also concerned about a well-known 'party house' next door to where Kaye and DeLuca lived, and described seeing multiple cars without license plates in the area.
Encino resident Vlad Gold, 49, said that burglaries in Encino are common, but he's now considering getting a guard dog after the couple's murder. 'It's just horrible,' he said.
Times staff writer Richard Winton contributed to this report.