‘Drug house’ woman gets 3 years probation

A 64-year-old woman accused of running a “drug house” has been placed on three years’ probation after pleading no contest to maintaining a place for selling or using controlled substances, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said Friday.

Judith Ward, of Canyon Country, who was arrested in March during a drug raid appeared in court last week at the Santa Clarita Courthouse where she entered her plea.

“Ward pleaded no contest to one misdemeanor count of maintaining place for selling or using controlled substances and was sentenced to 36 months summary probation,” DA spokesman Ricardo Santiago told The Signal Friday.

Ward was the first of three people arrested in separate drug raids since March to be accused of operating a drug house.

On March 8, narcotics bureau officers raided a home on the 18900 block of Nearbrook Street and arrested more than a dozen people on drug offenses including Ward.

Once the March raid was over, city code enforcement officers entered the house.

They ended up issuing citations to the owner of the house for building code violations, a zoning code violation and property maintenance, Danny Rivas, City of Santa Clarita Community Preservation Manager

“It was found to have an accumulation of trash, junk and debris – piles of trash,” Rivas said earlier this month.

They also called in county public health inspectors and an official with Adult Protective Services to investigate suspicions that an occupant of the house should not – for health reasons – be living there.

City officials re-inspected the house on June 9 and reported corrective changes had been made and that progress was being made on the continued cleanup.

The house was scheduled to be re-inspected Friday, June 30, Rivas said.