Owner Charged in Posting Club Signs

The owner of a Simi Valley nightclub has been charged with 23 counts of illegally posting signs in Los Angeles to promote his business and failing to comply with orders to remove them, officials said Friday.

Adan Valenzuela, 34, who owns Durango Night Club at 2355 Tapo St., will be arraigned Nov. 4 in a

Van Nuys municipal court. He is charged with 10 counts of illegal sign posting and 13 counts of failing to remove them.

Each count is punishable by a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. However, in similar cases, offenders have been sentenced to community service, officials said.

Building and safety inspectors first saw the signs on several utility poles Aug. 27. Valenzuela was given until Sept. 7 to remove them but failed to, said spokesman Mike Qualls of the Los Angeles city attorney’s office.

Prosecutors scheduled a hearing Sept. 28 to settle the matter, but Valenzuela did not appear, Qualls said.

The city attorney’s office has filed about half a dozen sign-posting cases since May. The stepped-up prosecution follows complaints by residents who live in areas where poles are plastered with ads.

“It’s a topic of considerable neighborhood concern,” Qualls said. “People consider them real blight.”

A similar case is pending against the popular Hollywood nightclub House of Blues, Qualls said.