JUDGE: DRUG HOUSE RULED A 'NUISANCE'

Site Of Many Busts Must Close For A Year

OAKLAND -- The city has closed the final chapter in its drawn-out fight
against an East Oakland house that officials say has been the center of
massive drug activity for more than a decade.

The city won the right in August to shut down the bright blue,
trailer-style house of Vernolia and Betty McCullough at 1148 71st Ave. Last
week an Alameda County Superior Court judge ruled that the house is a
public nuisance and must remain closed for at least a year.

"This house has been a scourge to this East Oakland neighborhood for over a
decade," said City Attorney John Russo in a statement. "I am satisfied that
the community has a reprieve from the criminal activity around this house
for at least a year."

The house, on a litter-strewn street just beyond the shadow of the Coliseum
complex, has been the site of more than twenty narcotics arrests over the
last three years. Police say it has been a center for marijuana sales, and
hundreds of bags of the drug have been confiscated from the site.

The city has been targeting the small house since 1991, when it ordered the
McCulloughs to immediately stop letting the house be used for drug dealing.
About 120 drug-related arrests were made within a couple of weeks in April
1992, and the city succeeded in shutting it down for part of that year and
1993.

But the house was eventually returned to the family's control, and in 1999
the city again began efforts to shut it down. The city attorney's office
has also sought the assistance of the United States Attorney's Office,
which has begun an asset forfeiture action.

If it is successful, the property will be forfeited to the federal
government, according to Russo's office.