The door on Cal State Long Beach professor Elena Zagustin's 16862 Morse Circle residence states "Excessive hazards and fire conditions. Unfit for human habitation."
The sign was posted there Monday by Orange County inspectors who finally responded after years of complaints by neighbors that have described the house as "totally disgusting."
In a recent decision, Judge Mary Fingal Erickson ruled in favor of 33 Huntington Harbor residents who have filed claims for emotional distress from the rubbish-strewn and malodorous state of the professor's home. The award totaled $146,000.
This is the second time in three years that judgments against Zagustin have been awarded to the residents. The first one being in 1994 when residents were awarded judgments totaling $140,000.
The money was never paid because Zagustin filed for four different fraudulent bankruptcies, according to neighbor David Flynn.
Flynn, who has lived directly across the street from the condemned house for six years, has become the leading spokesperson for the lawsuits.
Although residents have been fighting Zagustin for more than 20 years, Flynn said he stepped in to organize concrete efforts.
According to a police report filed in 1992, violations such as excessive rubbish accumulation, overgrown vegetation, dead vegetation, broken and discarded furniture, hazardous electrical wiring and others were reported.
In this week's raid, reports confirmed that utilities such as water and electricity have been shut off for over a year.
Flynn said that he has 500 pages of code enforcement violations by Zagustin. The professor's house has been described as having the most violattions in Orange County, he said.
"Even homeless people live better than her," Flynn said. "At least they try and bathe once in awhile. She has had no bathroom, so she would do it in buckets and then empty it in the yard."
One neighbor, who has lived in Huntington Harbor for only a year and has requested to stay anonymous in fear of retaliation, said that she joined in the neighborhood lawsuit after witnessing a recent incident.
She said she saw Zagustin bring in a gardener to cut the six feet of weeds in front of the house and then start yelling at him. The neighbor said she heard Zagustin yell racial slurs at the laborer.
Zagustin then took off in her van, leaving the worker stranded after she had promised to pay him, according to the neighbor.
Flynn has confirmed that hiring and then abandoning workers happened on a regular basis. Neighbors would then be left to feed and take the workers home, the first neighbor said.
Another neighbor, who also asked to remain anonymous, said that she remembers the front yard of ZagustinŐs house was littered with two no-wheeled vehicles in the driveway, 14 trash barrels, a sofa, a bookcase and a dishwasher.
According to the neighbor, Zagustin would also live out of her van in the front of grocery stores. The neighbor said Zagustin is banned from most stores because she would walk through the aisles, pick up food, take a bite out of it and then put it back.
Flynn said he witnessed the latest grocery store incident. Flynn said that when police were called on Zagustin for camping out in front of a local Hughes market, she took off her blouse, rubbed Vaseline over her shoulders and put on a pair of goggles.
"Two main questions have arisen," Flynn said, "How could the city of Huntington Beach keep ignoring the neighborhood complaints, and also how could Cal State continue to let her teach?"
In a recent letter to Flynn, Lisa Rothbart, a former CSULB student said that on the first day of class Zagustin showed up with greasy hair, soiled jeans and filthy sneakers. Rothbart also wrote in the letter that Zagustin continuously failed to show up for classes. When students signed a petition that said Zagustin failed to show up, it was then sent to the Associate Dean of engineering the letter said. The letter stated that upon hearing that there was nothing that could be done, Rothbart was so disgusted by the quality of education that she and her husband transferred to a different university.
"As taxpayers, why are we paying this lady?" Flynn said. "She has no business teaching."
Several students were interviewed for this story, and few would comment on the situation. None would go on record named.
Peeping through a crack in the shades, one can see large amounts of debris and boxes piled up in Zagustin's CSULB office.
One student who said he has seen the inside of Zagustin's office said that there is an enormous amount of junk and food. He said there was food that looked like "Chicken McNuggets that could have been there from 1979."
One mechanical engineering student who was enrolled in Zagustin's Civil Engineering 205, analytical mechanics 1- statics class described her as a "very nice lady."
The student said he dropped the course after two weeks because he felt that the teaching went way beyond the class level.
"Sometimes I felt that she would throw problems and theories out there just so she could answer them herself," the student said.
According to Flynn, Zagustin's behavior over the past years has gotten worse. He claims that Zagustin has chased his wife with a small hatchet.
The Daily Forty-Niner tried to reach Zagustin for comment. She did not return telephone messages, and could not be reached at her office. She was not at her Huntington Harbor residence.
The civil engineering department refused to comment on the issue.