Glendale News Press
LATimes.com
March 4 2005
Civil court irking arson victims
Family is concerned that judge in alleged arsonist’s case is delaying
a freeze of Gary Gene Glazier’s assets.
By Robert Chacon, News-Press and Leader
GLENDALE — On the night of May 13, 2004, an arsonist took everything
Anahit Makhmuryan and her husband, Albert Artsvelyan, owned by
burning down their La Crescenta home.
Now, they say, the civil court system is trying to do the same.
The man accused of the crime is their neighbor, Gary Gene Glazier,
who prosecutors allege torched the couple’s home using an industrial
paint sprayer filled with gasoline, and a long pole, on the end of
which burned a small flame.
Glazier is awaiting trial for attempted murder and arson, but he is
also embroiled in a civil lawsuit in Glendale Superior Court in which
the plaintiffs are seeking $1.5 million in reparation and punitive
damages. He is being held at North County Correctional Facility in
Saugus.
“We lost everything in the fire,” Makhmuryan said. “Everything that
was in the home: our furnishings, our sense of security and safety.”
The family’s civil attorney, Anahid Agemian, filed an injunction
against Glazier in June, ordering him to disclose his assets and
prohibiting him from liquidating them. But Agemian says Glendale
Superior Court Judge Charles Stoll, who is presiding over the civil
case, has “indulged” in a long line of obstructions by Glazier’s
civil attorney, Howard Slavin, thus delaying a ruling on the matter.
“I cannot comment on a case that is pending before me,” Stoll said.
Slavin also declined to comment, saying that he is reserving comment
until the trial is over.
In the meantime, Glazier has been transferring assets to family
members, Agemian said. She does not know exactly what Glazier owns
because he never disclosed his assets.
Glazier married his longtime girlfriend, Linda Darlene Rae, on June
7, a few weeks after his arrest, Agemian said, adding that it was a
move that would make it easier to transfer assets to someone he
trusts.
His criminal defense attorney, Robert Shapiro, has filed a motion to
allow some of Glazier’s properties to be transferred to him as
payment for his work in the criminal trial. The matter is set for a
hearing March 11 in Stoll’s courtroom.
Agemian and her clients fear that the court will allow the transfer
to proceed, leaving nothing for them to collect if they are
victorious in the civil trial.
“The court is placing importance on the criminal trial at the expense
of my clients,” Agemian said. “Court orders have continuously been
violated by Slavin, and the court continues to allow them. It seems
to me that there is a concerted effort going on to not let the
[couple] get paid.”
Since the original injunction in June, Agemian has filed six motions
ordering Glazier to comply, and the court has made three orders
requiring Glazier to provide information regarding his assets,
according to court documents.
Each time, she said, these orders have been violated.
“He took everything from us,” Makhmuryan said of Glazier. “We have
this injunction, and now Shapiro might get everything he has.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress