Here’s what happens when someone tries to be creative and runs afoul of the laws. Who thought you could go to jail for advertising?
Los Angeles is getting aggressive in its pursuit of illegal advertisement signage, and this case shows how you can be caught up in a misdemeanor and face a huge bail.
Businessman held on $1-million bail in supergraphic case
City attorney says Kayvan Setareh posted an illegal eight-story sign near Hollywood and Highland.
In a dramatic escalation of the war against illegal supergraphics in Los Angeles, authorities have jailed a businessman accused of posting an eight-story movie advertisement on an office building at one of Hollywood’s busiest intersections.
Kayvan Setareh, 49, of Pacific Palisades was arrested at his home Friday night and ordered held on $1-million bail. An arrest warrant obtained by Los Angeles City Atty. Carmen Trutanich accuses Setareh of three misdemeanor city code violations, two of them related to the city sign law, according to William Carter, Trutanich’s chief deputy.
The arrest was an unusually aggressive move by Trutanich and comes less than a week after the city attorney filed a separate lawsuit involving more than a dozen other supergraphics scattered across the city. Just days after that lawsuit was filed, workers used bolts and wire to wrap the new ad around the face of a 1928 office building on the northeast corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue, a major tourist destination along Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. Trutanich’s office said Setareh had an “ownership interest” in the building.
“The days of lax and inconsistent enforcement of billboard and outdoor advertising laws in this city are over,” Trutanich said in a prepared statement.
Setareh, who is scheduled to be arraigned Monday, could not be reached for comment Saturday. A woman who answered a phone listed in Setareh’s name declined to discuss the case but said the arrest had been “a shock to the whole family.”
City officials say that unpermitted supergraphics pose a threat to public safety because the huge sheets of vinyl can fall onto cars and pedestrians if they are not attached properly. Still, some law enforcement observers voiced surprise at the large bail amount, saying $1 million is typically used in far more serious cases, such as homicide, rape and kidnapping.
“I’m not saying don’t hold him accountable,” said Nick Pacheco, a former prosecutor and city councilman who is not affiliated with the case. “But I don’t see the relationship between a million-dollar bail and three misdemeanors.”
City officials suspect that the unpermitted image — an advertisement for the film “How to Train Your Dragon” — was timed to coincide with the 82nd annual Academy Awards ceremony next week, which is staged at the Kodak Theatre down the street.
