The Brief

Even in L.A.’s famously overheated real estate market, the profit — and quick turnaround — on a senior housing complex in the Cheviot Hills neighborhood seemed extraordinary.

The man at the center of the deal, since identified by federal prosecutors as Brentwood landlord and developer Steven Taylor, bought the property on Shelby Drive in 2023 for $11.2 million, purchase records show.

He wasn’t planning to hold on to the complex for long. At the time of his purchase, a company owned by Taylor already was in escrow to sell the complex to Weingart Center, a major homeless housing provider, for more than double what he paid, according to a purchase agreement obtained through a public records request.

The $27.3 million to pay for that acquisition came from taxpayer grant funds authorized by city and state officials, according to grant documentation. L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom touted the purchase as a key tool in the fight against homelessness.

The deal called for Taylor’s involvement to be kept secret, according to a confidentiality clause included in the purchase contract obtained through a public records request.

That changed last month, when federal authorities announced criminal charges against Taylor. He’s accused of submitting fraudulent documents to borrow money from private lenders when he bought this and other properties.

At a news conference, the region’s top federal prosecutor, Bill Essayli, said the investigation is ongoing.

Taylor was arrested in August, when the case was under seal, and pleaded not guilty, court records show. It’s the first of the two known criminal cases brought so far by the federal task force Essayli assembled in April to investigate fraud and corruption around the use of billions of dollars earmarked to combat homelessness in Southern California.

Essayli announced the task force after a court-ordered review and a federal audit found city and state officials have failed to properly track homeless funds and protect against fraud.

Taylor and his attorney, Michael Freedman, have not responded to LAist’s phone messages for comment.

LAist’s review of the Cheviot Hills property deal found the purchase stands out not just for its high price tag but for the complexity and secrecy surrounding it.

The records reviewed by LAist show:

• A purchase agreement shows Taylor was in escrow to buy the property when city and state officials agreed to use taxpayer funds to buy it from him for $27 million.
• Weingart Center’s application for state funding included an appraisal report containing inaccurate information about who owned the property and did not mention the pending sale.
• L.A. Mayor Karen Bass’ office had a “big role” in the city’s process that recommended this property and two others for the government grants, according to an email from a top executive at the city housing department. 
• A Weingart Center leader said the property, now known as Weingart Shelby, isn’t expected to open until next year, despite the grant originally requiring it to be fully occupied by February 2025.

Bass’ office did not answer questions regarding the purchase. In a statement to LAist, the mayor’s office said the Shelby site “remains an important property providing interim housing in an area of the city that has extremely limited interim housing supply” and that the city is cooperating with the ongoing federal investigation.

Weingart Center’s longtime president and CEO, Kevin Murray, whose signature is on the purchase deal, has not responded to LAist’s requests for comment. He previously told the L.A. Times he had “no prior relationship with the seller and no continuing relationship” and that taxpayers paid fair market price.

Murray and Weingart Center’s chief of real estate development, Ben Rosen, have been placed on leave, according to news reports last month. Rosen also has not responded to LAist’s requests for comment.

The nonprofit’s board has elevated Chief Operating Officer Tonja Boykin to lead Weingart Center and has commissioned an outside investigation, a spokesperson for the nonprofit told LAist.

“In light of recent reporting raising questions concerning the valuation of certain homeless housing projects, we have retained an outside law firm to conduct an internal review of related subjects,” said the statement from spokesperson Stefan Friedman.

This summer, city leaders in Torrance publicly raised concerns that the group was massively overpaying for a hotel property under another round of state homelessness grants.

An LAist review also found Weingart Center has received more than $100 million from taxpayers despite failing to comply with audit requirements since 2022. The latest available audit, of the fiscal year ending April 2023, concluded the organization had multiple failures in tracking taxpayer money it was handling.

(Click here to read another LAist article, also published today, about financial concerns around other Weingart Center activities.)

Weingart Center’s spokesperson said the group remains committed to addressing homelessness, including serving almost 2,000 people daily through interim and permanent supportive housing sites across L.A.

Bass’ office had a ‘big role’ in selection process, per city email

In spring 2023, the city of L.A. was on a third round of state Homekey grants — a program launched by California in 2020 as a way to quickly expand the homeless housing supply, initially by buying motels and hotels and renovating them.

Weingart Center was one of about two dozen groups that submitted 31 proposals to the city in March 2023, according to city records.

Under Homekey, cities and counties can partner with nonprofit or for-profit developers to apply for the grants. If chosen, the non-government partner buys the property with the grant money, and the partnering city or county chips in a sizable amount of money too.

Weingart Center initially proposed an existing hotel property in Harbor Gateway, along the 110 Freeway, in their grant application.

Then, in a May email to city officials, Bass' director of affordable housing production said they’d “identified a new potential site for Weingart,” listing the Shelby Drive address. Weingart changed the proposal to the Shelby site in West L.A. in May 2023, records show.

“The mayor's office did play a big role in the selection process,” states an email from Eric Claros, director of housing at the city’s housing department, which LAist obtained as part of an open records request.

Claros and a spokesperson for the housing department declined to speak to LAist about the selection process.

In late May 2023, Bass’ office informed the office of Katy Yaroslavsky — the city councilmember who represents Cheviot Hills — “that they planned to include the Shelby property in the city's application for Project Homekey 3.0 funding,” according to Yaroslavsky’s office.

A few days later, on June 9, 2023, the city’s housing department officially recommended that the City Council approve the Shelby property as one of three projects to receive city funding and to jointly apply for Homekey grants.

Taylor signs deal to buy the property

On June 16, 2023, less than a week after city staff publicly recommended the Shelby project for state funding, Taylor went into escrow to buy the property from Bridge, according to a copy of that purchase agreement the city disclosed to LAist. The price negotiated at that point is redacted in the copy the city disclosed.

Taylor signed the deal to buy the property on behalf of an LLC he later said he was the sole owner of, according to an email disclosed by the city.

Twelve days later, the City Council took the housing department’s recommendation and officially approved the Shelby property as one of three sites the city would partner on to unlock state grant funds. In doing so, the city agreed to pay $20 million toward the purchase to unlock the other $7 million from the state to purchase the property.

The project called for another $15 million in state funds to be set aside for renovating and preparing the property after the acquisition, plus another $15 million in city and state funds to cover at least four years of operations.

The state says the money it gave for the purchase and renovation came from federal dollars given to states during the COVID-19 pandemic.

(Click here to see a breakdown of taxpayer funds the city and state committed to the project.)

The taxpayer-funded deal to buy from Taylor

Murray signed the agreement for the Weingart Center to buy the property from Taylor for $27.3 million in taxpayer funds July 26, 2023, according to a copy of the purchase agreement the city released in response to a public records request. At that time, neither Taylor nor his affiliated companies owned the Shelby site.

The agreement states Murray, on behalf of Weingart Center, acknowledged the seller — Taylor — didn’t own the property but was in escrow to buy it.

As part of the purchase agreement, Murray — one of the two Weingart Center executives now on leave — agreed that Weingart Center — the taxpayer-funded buyer — never would identify Taylor to the public or news media as the seller, nor would it reveal the deal’s terms, outside of narrow exceptions.

The deal also said it was expected that an “affiliate” of Taylor would buy the property from its owner and complete the sale.

Appraisal problems

Ahead of the sale, the Homekey grant application required a property appraisal, which Murray commissioned and received in July 2023. LAist obtained a copy of the appraisal from the city through a public records request.

The Shelby appraisal report doesn’t mention that the property was under contract at the time to be sold. The state’s requirements for Homekey appraisals say the reports should include information about any pending sales of the property being appraised.

Instead, the appraisal states Weingart Center was buying the property directly from its then-owner for $27.3 million. The report incorrectly identifies the owner as an LLC owned by Taylor. As a title report attached to the appraisal shows, the property still was owned at the time by the subsidiary of Bridge.

The appraisal report gave several estimates for the property’s value, depending on the method.

When looking at nearby sales of apartment complexes and adjusting for differences, the appraisal estimated the Shelby property’s value would be $19.4 million — about $8 million less than what taxpayers were paying and $7 million more than Taylor was paying.

Other methods in the appraisal generated higher value estimates, including two estimates right around $27.3 million — the amount the report says Weingart Center already had agreed to pay for the property. Those methods looked at similar sales of assisted living facilities and the estimated income the property would garner as an assisted living facility.

The company that conducted the appraisal, BBG, defended its process to LAist.

“The appraiser handled the appraisal assignment correctly with the information they were given,” said Peter Christensen, BBG’s general counsel and chief compliance officer.

Weingart Center sent a copy of the appraisal to the state housing department July 27, 2023, as part of its application with the city for Homekey funds.

State approves grant

With the appraisal and other application materials in hand, state officials awarded over $22 million in Homekey money toward the purchase and renovation of the Shelby property in November 2023.

Records show a business that had Taylor as its point of contact completed the purchase of the Shelby property for $11.2 million Dec. 26, 2023. It was six months after Taylor entered escrow to buy it and about a month after state officials committed to fund Weingart Center’s purchase for double that amount.

The taxpayer money changed hands in April 2024, when Weingart closed on buying it from the company linked to Taylor. No improvements to the property were documented in city permit records during that time.

The Homekey grants are overseen by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), led since 2020 by Gov. Gavin Newsom appointee Gustavo Velasquez.

The department declined to answer questions about their approval of the Shelby grant, following the federal announcement. A spokesperson cited the ongoing investigation, saying the department is cooperating with the U.S. Attorney’s office, which “has made it clear the department is a mere witness in this matter.”

Delays in opening

In addition to the $27 million in public funds to buy the property, Weingart Center was approved to spend another $15 million in state funds for renovations and other costs to prepare it to become housing for people in need of shelter.

The state grant originally required Weingart Center to finish all construction and rehabilitation work by Nov. 21, 2024, and have the housing units fully occupied by Feb. 21.

Those deadlines have moved significantly, as work on the facility continues and runs into problems like asbestos and mold, according to city permit records and state records.

What’s next

Weingart Center says upgrades aren’t expected to be completed until late February 2026, more than a year later than the original schedule. The state has granted multiple extensions, with the deadline for full occupancy now set at April 21, 2026.

LAist reporters Ted Rohrlich, Jordan Rynning and Elly Yu contributed to this story.

Federal immigration agents detained at least two people late Friday outside Adventist White Memorial Hospital in Boyle Heights, where protesters had gathered after reports of immigration enforcement activity, according to rapid response groups. Protesters remained at the hospital into the early hours of Saturday, where immigration agents maintained a large presence.

It appears the incident began after people witnessed someone being detained and taken into the hospital, according to Raquel Roman, executive director of Proyecto Pastoral and member of the Boyle Heights Immigrant Rights Network.   That spurred a crowd of protesters to rally against ICE agents, who then detained two protesters who are U.S. citizens, Roman said.

ICE activity was also reported near Mariachi Plaza at 5:50 a.m. Saturday, according to witnesses, and outside the East LA Sheriff’s Station, where agents have been seen detaining people in the L.A. County-designated ICE-Free zone. 

Arrests captured on social video

Video posted on social media appears to show one person being detained outside the hospital. In the video, at least three officers in tactical vests are seen detaining someone at the intersection of Boyle and Pennsylvania Avenues around 11:30 p.m.

A group of about six more officers in tactical vests and masks can be seen walking around the area as another, whose vest says “Police ICE,” yells at the person recording to “back up” and “do not impede with the arrest.”

“You’re arresting U.S. citizens,” the person recording says. “18 USC 111, they’re interfering,” the officer replies, referring to Title 18, Section 111 of the U.S. Code: Assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers or employees. 

In the video, a bystander who says the person being arrested is his brother can be seen speaking to the officer. 

“Your brother assaulted a federal agent. He’s being arrested for assaulting a federal agent; he’s coming with us,” the officer tells them. 

Boyle Heights Beat reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for more information about the incident but has not yet received a response.

LAPD response

The Los Angeles Police Department was first called to the scene at 11:59 p.m. to respond to a “large group causing a disturbance,” according to LAPD Officer Norma Eisenman. LAPD responded again at 2:24 a.m. as crowds continued to gather outside of the hospital. 

“Officers responded to maintain public safety and keep the peace. At no point did LAPD officers assist federal immigration authorities with enforcement activities or detain any individuals in connection with immigration enforcement,” Eisenman said. 

Video posted on social media by Izzy Ramirez shows a line of agents blocking the emergency loading dock around 2:30 a.m. as a crowd continues to shout at the agents and make noise.

“It was horrible for the local community. The ICE presence was a lot more than I’ve seen it visibly before,” said Roman. 

What the hospital said

Japhet De Oliveira, corporate communications executive at Adventist Health, shared the following statement:

“Federal agents brought a person in their custody to our emergency department, and we cared for that patient with dignity and privacy, as we do for every patient. When agents formed a line across our ambulance entrance, which we did not request nor authorize, we diverted ambulances to nearby hospitals for about two hours to ensure every patient received timely care. White Memorial does not participate in immigration enforcement. We know last night frightened our neighbors. No matter what happens outside our doors, everyone who comes inside is our patient, and our focus will only be on that patient, and it will not change.”

Doctors at Adventist White Memorial last year reported that ICE agents were violating the privacy rights of detained patients and prohibiting contact with patients’ family members. While the hospital released guidelines to protect patients and support staff,  doctors and advocates have said they fall short.

What's next

Councilmember Ysabel Jurado, who represents Boyle Heights, said she was “deeply troubled” by the reports overnight and demanded answers from hospital leadership. She said:

The Boyle Heights Immigrant Rights Network said it plans to lead a protest against ICE outside White Memorial at 2 p.m. Saturday.

This is a developing story and will be updated. 

The post ICE detains two U.S. citizens protesting outside White Memorial Hospital, rapid response groups say appeared first on LA Local.

People may have been getting high off cannabis earlier than previously thought — at least 2,800 years ago, a new study suggests.

Archaeologists who led a dig at a monumental tomb in Siberia said they turned up evidence of the earliest known use of cannabis for psychoactive purposes.

The findings point to cannabis consumption at least 300 years earlier than previously known use in neighboring China.

Ancient drug use has long intrigued scholars. The Greek historian Herodotus wrote about inhabitants of Central Asia smoking cannabis around 440 B.C., and recent archaeologists have found the seeds in tombs across its highlands.

The team from Germany, Russia, Sweden and Switzerland said analysis of hair in the royal tomb where cannabis seeds turned up sheds new light on the plant’s role in ancient societies.

“It’s extremely rare that we have both preserved plant parts and human soft tissue with the active compounds in it in the same context,” said co-author Gino Caspari, an archaeologist at the University of Bern.

It’s not clear whether the cannabis was consumed through inhalation or ingestion, he said.

The dig took place starting in 2017 at a large burial mound at the Tunnug 1 site in the Uyuk Valley of southern Siberia, home to one of the earliest monumental tombs showing material culture of the Scythians — ancient nomads who migrated from Central Asia to southern Russia and Ukraine.

The team, deployed “essentially out in the middle of nowhere,” lived in tents for months and faced a spring-to-autumn season that variously featured swamps, snowstorms, frosts and swarms of mosquitoes. Herds of horses ran freely across the grassy steppe.

Larger artifacts on the site include weapons in the burials, horse gear and animal-style motifs. But the team “struck gold” as it also found tiny black spots that turned out to be cannabis seeds along with preserved human hair, Caspari said.

“It’s only so often as an archaeologist that you do get to drug test a person that’s been dead for almost 3,000 years,” he said.

Radiocarbon dating on some of the more than 1,000 seeds helped establish the time of origin, and “they are not there by accident” but deposited within the tomb, suggesting that the plant material had significance in the community, he said.

Results were published Thursday in the journal Science.

Not all independent experts were convinced.

The hair analysis “is scientifically weak” and there’s not enough evidence to tell whether cannabis was used, wrote Volker Auwaerter, head of the forensic toxicology section at the University Medical Center in Freiburg, Germany, in an email.

“For a central part of the study, the article falls far short of what would have been possible,” Auwaerter said. “This matters because the hair data carry the abstract’s main claims (cannabis consumption and use for its psychoactive properties).”

Today, scholars don’t consider ancient accounts trustworthy without corroborating evidence. Because the cannabis plant has other uses — seeds are pressed for oil and fibers used for cloth — their presence alone doesn’t confirm drug use.

Auwaerter, who was not part of the study, said the data didn’t distinguish consumption from external exposure — in other words, the hair could have picked up traces of weed simply by being buried together with it. He said a lab test involving forensic toxicology expertise would have been advisable and easy to arrange.

But Elisa Guerra Doce of the University of Valladolid in Spain, who has written about use of consciousness-altering substances in European prehistory, said toxicological hair analysis was not new in archaeology and has been used to identify consumption of psychoactive substances. She was not involved in the study.

In an email, she credited the authors for showing, through their methodology, that “cannabis was not merely deposited as a funerary offering but was actually consumed by individuals associated with the burial rite.”

A California appeals court has found that “ER” and “The Pitt” have enough similarity that a lawsuit brought by the widow and estate of “ER” creator Michael Crichton alleging “The Pitt” is an unauthorized reboot can move forward.

A three-judge panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled unanimously on Wednesday that the trial court judge was correct to reject a motion to throw out the case from “The Pitt” production company Warner Bros. Television, which also produced “ER.” But the judges dismissed Noah Wyle — the star of both shows and a producer on “The Pitt” — as a defendant along with two other producers who worked on both series.

The lawsuit is a clash between the makers of multiple Emmy-winning TV series that were each among the most important and acclaimed shows of their eras.

Crichton, the author of “Jurassic Park” and many other novels that became hit movies and TV shows, wrote the pilot script for “ER,” the NBC show about a Chicago emergency room that redefined the medical drama genre and drew tens of millions of weekly viewers in its run from 1994 to 2009.

The lawsuit brought by Sherri Crichton was filed two years ago, before a single episode of “The Pitt” had aired. The HBO Max series that shows a real-time day in the life of a Pittsburgh emergency department has since become perhaps the most lauded series in television, winning two Emmys for best drama for its first two seasons and two best actor Emmys for Wyle.

Along with more technical legal issues, the judges had to decide whether the shows had at least the minimal similarity that would give the lawsuit enough merit to move forward. Their decision applies only to this early legal challenge and they did not rule on whether the plaintiffs had proved the “The Pitt” is derivative of “ER.”

The court agreed with the plaintiff that “both shows provide commentaries on the healthcare system; they focus specifically on the emergency room and the difficult conditions under which the medical staff operates. Both shows take place, with little exception, in the emergency room, as opposed to other medical shows which track patients as they move out of the emergency room, or indeed never enter it.”

The opinion also said that both feature “very fast pacing, and reactions to multiple overlapping crises. The fast-paced dialogue is (to a layperson) frequently incomprehensible shorthand and jargon, lending an air of immediacy and accuracy.”

Warner Bros. Television said in a statement that “WBTV continues to maintain that ‘The Pitt’ is an entirely original series and that the claims against it are without merit. Nothing in the Court of Appeal’s decision establishes otherwise, and WBTV looks forward to defending its position as the case proceeds.”

The defendants argued in legal filings that the shows have “generic similarities” that would exist in “any dramatic story” that features “overworked doctors and staff.”

The panel also unanimously dismissed as defendants Wyle, John Wells, who created “The Pitt” and worked on “ER,” and R. Scott Gemmill, a “Pitt” executive producer who also worked on both shows. The judges found there was no evidence the three men knew the provisions of the Crichton contract that the lawsuit alleges they interfered with.

Sherri Crichton’s lawsuit alleges “The Pitt” is a rebranded version of an unauthorized “ER” reboot that she had rejected.

Her husband had secured a coveted “frozen rights” provision in his contract for the series, prohibiting Warner Bros. from proceeding with any sequels, remakes, spinoffs or other productions derived from “ER” without Crichton’s consent, or his estate’s consent after his death from cancer in 2008.

After the production company could not reach an agreement with Sherri Crichton over a proposed “ER” reboot, the TV studio proceeded to develop and produce a series based on the same premise without permission, the lawsuit alleges.

Micki Boden wanted a wedding cake that checked off a couple of big boxes — personalized and tasty. Instead of a traditional tiered cake, the San Fernando Valley native went with a favorite from her school days.

“My favorite cake of all time is the coffee cake that I ate through my entire K-12 education going to LAUSD public school,” Boden said.

Boden attended elementary school in Studio City and middle school in Sherman Oaks before graduating from a Reseda high school.

Boden and her husband, Matt Stollman, met in 2016 while working on the reality television show Big Brother and eventually started dating. The two got engaged in 2025.

With the groom’s family traveling from the East Coast for their wedding in October, the couple wanted to provide a uniquely L.A. experience.

Micki Boden and Matt Stollman cut into their LAUSD coffee cake wedding cake.

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Micki Boden

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“We wanted something that was gonna be fun, that was gonna be memorable for people,” Boden said.

They held their wedding at the Valley Relics Museum in Van Nuys, surrounded by San Fernando Valley memorabilia, and got a California favorite — an In-N-Out truck — to serve guests.

The search for a cake that fit 

But when it came to the wedding cake, the couple struggled to find something suitable. Neither Boden nor Stollman liked frosting, and traditional wedding cakes didn’t excite them.

“We explored the more traditional tiered cake setup, and it just wasn’t meshing well,” Boden said.

Boden kept returning to the coffee cake she ate throughout her years in public school. Los Angeles Unified School District had published its official recipe online, but she wasn’t confident she could bake it herself. So she reached out to the district to ask for help.

The Stollman's wedding cake, decorated by the chef at Mulholland Middle School in Lake Balboa, sits in a pastry box.

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Micki Boden

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How LAUSD made it happen 

Thomas Cohen, a public relations representative at the district, and Manish Singh, the director of food services, arranged for a chef at Mulholland Middle School in Lake Balboa to prepare the wedding cake. The chef also shaped part of the cake into a heart just for the couple.

Singh said the district doesn’t take cake orders from the public — but made this exception.

“We were doing it just to make one of our Angelenos, an ex-LAUSD student, make her special day even more special,” Singh said.

For the bride, it was the icing on her big day.

“I think it’s all just part of being an L.A. student,” she said. “The fact that we have these amazing memories from childhood, I think it’s just so meaningful for a lot of people.”