Attorney Is Targeted by Officials as Slumlord : Housing: Fred B. Hovey III had a once-promising career, but his Hollywood buildings and his life have fallen into ruin.

The tenants at 1921 Whitley Ave. in Hollywood still don’t have hot water. That’s a bit ironic, because their landlord has been in a lot of it lately.

At one time, Fred B. Hovey III appeared headed for success. He was a personal-injury attorney with an office in Beverly Hills and a couple of income properties he had inherited from his family. But Los Angeles officials say that Hovey, 43, has instead distinguished himself as one of the city’s most notorious slumlords.

Last year, the Los Angeles city attorney’s office charged him with 34 criminal violations of various fire, health, and building and safety codes--all at one shabby 22-unit apartment building in the Hollywood Hills.

Of the remaining dozen or so legal tenants at the buildings Hovey owns--at 1909 and 1921 Whitley Ave.--several say they have seen their apartments become obstacle courses of exposed live wiring, cockroach nests, rotten pipes and leaky ceilings. Visitors must navigate huge puddles of standing water in one building’s foyer.

Both buildings have also become hangouts for legions of squatters and drug users. According to city housing enforcement officials, the blighted apartments have been dragging down an otherwise peaceful block.

The building at 1921 Whitley Ave. “acquired a reputation as a place to get drugs and smoke them,” said Asha Greenberg, a Los Angeles deputy city attorney who was part of a multi-agency narcotics detail that recently swept the building for drugs. During the sweep, police officers seized clusters of crack cocaine the size of tennis balls, Greenberg said.

Hovey could not be reached for comment for this story.

This month, he was sentenced to 90 days in jail and three years probation after pleading no contest to 10 of the 34 code violations and an unrelated charge for possession of methamphetamines. Meanwhile, he has been charged with trespassing and vandalism in connection with an alleged break-in at a tenant’s apartment.

According to the State Bar of California, Hovey has been convicted of drunk driving at least four times since 1983 and has failed to meet the requirements of his Bar-imposed probation.

His current troubles may mark the sad conclusion of a once-promising career.

Derek L. Tabone, a Los Angeles lawyer whose firm employed Hovey part time during the late 1980s, said he was surprised by the accounts of Hovey’s recent behavior and criminal record. He remembered his former employee as a competent, low-key attorney who mostly kept to himself.

“It sounds like he’s had a complete change of character or personality,” said Tabone, who added that he had not kept in touch since Hovey left the firm about 1989. “We knew he was having some problems with his marriage, but he was certainly a nice enough guy, a very quiet and straight-shooting guy.”

But tenants--some of whom are former law clients--describe Hovey as a Jekyll and Hyde-type personality: an intelligent and charming professional who in recent years began threatening tenants and befriending gang members. Many said that conditions at the buildings became far worse after Hovey moved into 1909 Whitley about a year ago.

“I wouldn’t,” joked tenant John Kirkgaard, 26, when asked to describe Hovey as a landlord. Standing in the doorway of his $350-a-month apartment, Kirkgaard related tales of backed-up sewage, falling plaster and other everyday miseries at the building. “He’s a lost, pathetic soul. I feel sorry for the guy.”