VENICE
YO!
SPECIAL SERIES: Westside Wellness | January (pages 6-7)
www.yovenice.com
Jan. 31 – Feb. 13, 2020
Witness Says She Saw Rape of ‘Passed-Out’ Homeless Woman By Sam Catanzaro
Photo: Sam Catanzaro.
The 300 block of Lincoln Boulevard in Venice.
Los Angeles police say that they do not have sufficient evidence or information to show that an alleged rape of a homeless woman occurred. Fox 11 Los Angeles reported last week that video footage appears to show that a passed out homeless woman was raped by a homeless man on a sidewalk in Venice. A woman interviewed by Fox 11 told the station that she was at a store near Lincoln Boulevard and Rose Avenue on the evening of Friday, January 17 when she noticed an inebriated looking woman laying on the ground outside the store. “I looked over an obviously she was pretty drunk,” the witness told Fox, adding that she
then saw a man running towards the woman from a nearby homeless encampment. “He basically ran over to her, pulled down his pants, laid down next to her and started pulling down her pants and kind of covering them and having sex with her.” The witness told Fox that she initially thought the sex was consensual because the woman did not resist but then when the witness approached the scene she noticed the woman was in her vomit with her eyes closed. “I definitely witnessed a rape,” the victim told Fox 11. “She was in her vomit, with her eyes closed like passed out. He was having sex with her like an animal. To me, it was absolutely rape.”
WITNESS, see page 10
Historic Church Converted into Millionaire’s Mansion? Lawmakers deny an appeal intended to stop conversion of First Baptist Church of Venice By Sam Catanzaro A half-century-old church in Venice with deep historical ties to the area’s African American community may soon become a mansion for a billionaire’s family. The church is the First Baptist Church of Venice, now owned by Jay Penske, the son of automotive billionaire Roger Penske. Jay and his wife Elaine want the City of Los Angeles to approve an exemption allowing them to change the use of the mid-century church into an 11,860 square-foot single-family home with a rooftop deck. Jay and Elaine, whose net worth is around $800 million, say they want to raise their children in Venice. In 2015 they bought the church for $6.3 million from First Baptist Church of Venice Bishop Horace Al-
Photos: City of Los Angeles
First Baptist Church of Venice
len after the congregation voted 41-9 in favor of selling the church, a sale that a judge later ruled was fraudulent. On Tuesday, January 14 the Los Angeles City Council Planning and Land Use Management Committee (Planning Committee) unanimously denied an appeal intended to overturn a West LA planning commission decision allowing for the conversion of First Baptist into a single-family residence. The appeal, filed by Venice resident and activist Mike Bravo, argued that the First Baptist Church of Venice, founded in 1910, is a historical resource and its conversion into a sin-
YOUR AD HERE!
Contact Judy Swartz judy@smmirror.com (310) 204-4255
A sketch of the Penske family’s plan for the church.
gle-family home would degrade the character of the surrounding Oakwood neighborhood. “The Oakwood Planning District is significant as a rare example of an early-20th century African-American enclave in Venice,” reads the appeal. “The First Baptist Church was the place that helped represent, unify and strengthen the community throughout the years, from the early 1900s when the first African Ameri-
TAX
cans came to work in Venice and had to cling together, to barter their services, worship together and survive. With First Baptist Church as their rock, the African American people survived through the hardships and aftermath of wars, the great depression, and the daunting years of civil, economic and infrastructure ne-
CONVERT, see page 8
Samuel Moses, CPA 100 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica
310.395.9922