THE DESERT SUN (Palm Springs, California)

April 12, 2009

Testimony in Duroville trial expected to wrap Monday

 RIVERSIDE - Testimony is expected to wrap up tomorrow in the federal government's case against a Thermal-area mobile home park on Indian land that authorities want shut down for health and safety reasons.

The civil trial that could determine whether 2,000 or more migrant workers and their families are allowed to remain at the Desert Mobile Home Park -- better known as ``Duroville'' for former park manager Harvey Duro -- began Tuesday and could conclude this afternoon.

Under cross-examination last week by attorneys representing tenants of the park, who want it to remain open, Jim Fletcher, superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Southern California Region, admitted that some improvements had been made at Duroville since the BIA initiated a lawsuit seeking closure of the park.

The residents say they would have nowhere else to live if the trailer park is shut down. Attorney Chandra Spencer presented photographs that Fletcher snapped during an April 3 driving tour of the park.

The photos showed different aspects of the 40-acre trailer court, which is on the Torres-Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indian Reservation. Spencer pointed out a trailer where items, including car parts and a broken bicycle, were scattered outside, asking whether Fletcher believed the trailer posed a health or safety hazard.

The witness said he couldn't see anything that might be a health threat. Spencer also asked the BIA official about tests conducted at the park in late 2007 to find out whether Duroville's drinking water was polluted with E. coli or other pathogens.

Fletcher testified that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported one test showed an abnormally high level of arsenic in the water, but nothing major otherwise.

The BIA reached an agreement with park manager Harvey Duro in 2004 to suspend legal action against him then if he improved conditions at the park. But Duro, who had never obtained a BIA-approved lease to operate the facility, failed to meet the agency's expectations, according to court papers.

In October 2007, the U.S. Attorney's Office filed another lawsuit on behalf of the BIA, seeking to have Duroville declared an illegal commercial operation and public nuisance, arguing a series of fires at the migrant camp, along with gas, sewage and electrical problems, warranted immediate closure.

After a study group informed U.S. District Judge Stephen Larson that the facility could be salvaged, the judge ruled against closure. Duro was instead given four months to obtain engineering studies, establish a business plan and make modifications as part of an agreement to keep the facility open.

Two months later, in July 2008, Duro had failed to comply with most of Larson's instructions, prompting the judge to appoint the Duroville Renaissance Corp. -- a nonprofit entity set up specifically to rehabilitate the park -- to take over management.

Larson removed Duro from an executive capacity at the park in December, denying him his $7,000 a month salary.

Under the DRC, car repair shops and other commercial operations that conflicted with the park's residential character have been evicted. Some of the park's roads and gates have been modified to better accommodate fire engines and other public safety equipment, according to DRC spokesman and interim park manager Tom Flynn.

Between 2,000 and 5,000 illegal immigrant workers and their families reside at the park, with occupancy going up and down depending on the season.

Most of the 300-plus trailers are more than 50 years old, according to Flynn. Virtually all of the mobile homes are in need of repair. Several fires have broken out in the last year, destroying a handful of travel coaches but causing no serious injuries.

Three smaller mobile home parks are located within a half-mile of Duroville, and like Duro's facility, none of them have BIA-approved leases, Fletcher testified, adding that none of the other facilities are in the same dilapidated condition as Duroville.

There is no jury hearing evidence in the trial, and Larson could decide eventual closure of Duroville is necessary, or choose another means to remedy the fact that the park exists on Indian land without BIA approval.