OWNER OF DRUG HAVEN FINED RECORD $25,000

The owner of a notorious rooming house that was a longtime haven for
prostitutes and drug users pleaded guilty to several fire code
violations Monday -- including exit doors being screwed shut -- and
agreed to pay the largest fire code fine on record in Calgary.

The house in the 300 block of 14th Avenue S.W., known to some as the
Shooting Gallery or the White House, was declared unfit to live in by
the Calgary Health Region last September because of mould and other
problems.

The declaration was made about three months after police searched one
of its 34 rooms in connection with the slaying of Ruchael Eva Friars,
a 35-year-old mother who was possibly killed in the building. Her body
was found six weeks later in a southeast landfill, leading to
first-degree murder charges against three women.

Monday's guilty plea in Calgary provincial court -- and its
accompanying $25,000 in fines -- was in large part a product of the
tenants who lived in the building, said Joseph Keryo, president of
A.J.K. Development Ltd., the building's owner.

"The problem was not with us, the problem was the type of people who
lived there," he said outside the courtroom, referring to the drug
users and vagrants who were typical tenants.

There were even people living in the boarded-up building when company
staff visited it last week, he said.

Keryo, on behalf of his company, pleaded guilty to five fire code
violations stemming from inspections in June and July last year.

They included not having smoke detectors inside a suite, not having
fire extinguishers on site, allowing the build up of combustible
materials near the furnace room, and having basement and ground-floor
exit doors screwed shut.

Prosecutors originally filed 17 charges against the company, but 12 of
those were withdrawn -- as were personal charges against Keryo -- in
exchange for the guilty plea.

Keryo said he inherited many of the building's problems when he bought
it in October 2005, including the absence of smoke detectors and fire
extinguishers.

As for the doors being screwed shut, Keryo said the tenants did it to
keep people out. When the building manager unscrewed the door during
the June inspection, it didn't take long for the repair to get undone,
he said.

Fire inspector Gary Burns said Keryo's building was the only one that
got slapped with charges after a round of reviews in the area last
summer.

"In my 27-year career, it was one of the worst buildings I've ever
entered," he said. "If there was a fire in this building, it would
have been disastrous."

Monday's plea was also the first successful prosecution stemming from
the city's Safe Housing Inspection Program, a team of health, bylaw,
licensing, police and fire officials that launched last year. Around
25 buildings have been inspected so far; the White House was the first.

Keryo said he is happy to pay the fine and move on. The company's
guilty plea will bring an end to the building's 67-year run as a
rooming house, he added. It's being converted into office space.