Smith Faces Charges; Hearings All Week

It’s out of the frying pan and into the fire for Ken Smith.

After successfully battling embezzlement and grand theft charges last year, Smith, the owner of the Paradise Ranch mobile home park in Castaic, now faces a new round of legal difficulties.

The Department of Motor Vehicles has charged Smith with over 50 violations in the operation of his park.

Administrative hearings have been held all week in the Valencia library which could result in Smith’s license to sell mobile homes being suspended or revoked.

According to Dorjs Jaffe, an attorney for the DMV, Smith is charged with fraud, misrepresentation, failure to pay registration fees, and failure to send in notices of sale over a three-year period.

She added that the DMV is seeking to recover $6490 in fees and penalties which it claims Smith owes.

In Smith’s defense, attorney J. George Gold said Smith is a “victim.”

He alleged DMV investigator Phil Chlopek “and others” are part of a conspiracy “to cause trouble to the maximum extent to Mr. Smith.”

A ten-count felony complaint was dismissed against Smith last November on grounds of insufficient evidence.

Smith had been charged with failing to turn over licensing and registration fees — which he collected from people to whom he sold mobile homes — to the DMV in the amount of time prescribed by law.

It was further alleged that Smith claimed a later date of sale on DMV documents in order to escape paying the penalty fees.

The hearing is scheduled to continue today beginning at 10 a.m. before administrative judge Rosalyn Chapman.