Police, code enforcement search Citrus Heights home, make arrests

By Mike Hazlip—
Citrus Heights police on Tuesday announced arrests in a probation search of an alleged drug house near Mariposa Avenue Elementary School.

The arrests were for illegal activity at a home on Perdez Court, located off Patton Avenue near Watson Way. Code enforcement also conducted an inspection of the home, according to the announcement on social media.

Police Lt. Michael Wells told The Sentinel in an email Tuesday the operation was conducted last week, with officers reportedly finding drug paraphernalia throughout the home. Nine individuals were at the residence at the time of the search and six were on active probation, according to Wells. Two arrests were made.

Police arrested the home owner on charges of “maintaining a location where drugs are bought and sold,” as well as a felony warrant for auto theft out of Placer County. A second individual at the home during the operation was arrested for a misdemeanor warrant, Wells said.

The action was prompted by complaints from nearby residents, one of whom told the City Council in April that drug dealing was suspected at the home.

“There are now dozens of very filthy and aggressive strangers hanging out at this mans house, sometimes being verbally offensive to our other neighbors,” resident Tani Carroll wrote in a letter to the council. “It appears to be a flop house for druggies and transients. The property is filthy with a sofa and oven in the front, bags and bags of what appears to be garbage.”

Following police actions at the home last week, signs appeared on the home’s front door saying “this is no longer a place for you to hang out… the cops are watching this house.”

However, residents told CBS 13 this week that the problem has returned, following the owner’s release from jail two days later.

Wells told The Sentinel that such problems tend to have “long life cycles,” citing legal constraints police have in working to remedy the problem.

“While making a custodial arrest may have an immediate impact, it is often short-lived as a result of the short custody session (in this case, two days),” said Wells. “After we make an arrest, the length of time in custody is out of our control and up to the courts and the jail.”

Wells said police will continue to monitor the residence and will use a “multi-faceted approach” involving the department’s Problem Oriented Policing unit as well as Code Enforcement and Rental Housing Inspection teams to “work towards a more lasting civil remedy.”

“We plan to work with our affected neighbors to positively impact this frustrating situation, we ask that they bear with us as these cases take time to adequately address within the guidelines of the law,” the lieutenant said.

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