Empire Court apartments,
southeast corner of Bush and Leavenworth.
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Neighbors
in the area of Bush and Leavenworth were surprised to discover that a notorious
criminal was living in their midst when Charley Charles, a resident
of the Empire Court apartments, was arrested here for arson, burglary, weapons
charges, and other offenses in June, 2001. Seems that Charley, who worked
as a handyman at the building and as a waiter at the International
House of Pancakes on Lombard, was none other than Charles Rothenberg,
the infamous Orange County arsonist who doused his six-year-old son with
kerosene and set him on fire during a custody dispute with his wife in 1983.
Rothenberg served about seven years of a 13-year sentence for
the attempted murder of his son, David, who survived the attack. Also known
as Charles Bocca, Rothenberg was paroled to Oakland and was later acquitted
of attempted murder in the 1996 shooting of an acquaintance at a Travelodge
there. The arsonist faces a possible sentence of 25 years to life for the
new charges which stem from a 5 a.m. fire in a neighbor's Empire
Court apartment and the stalking of another resident, in addition to the
weapons charges and other crimes. Mister SF notes
that the arrest of Rothenberg in this neighborhood is somewhat ironic considering
that arson fires were not uncommon in this District in the years prior to
Rothenberg's move here from Oakland. Perhaps the reviled dad was attracted
to Bush Street like a moth to a flame. Rothenberg is portrayed by John Glover
in the 1988 TV movie "David," also starring Bernadette Peters and Matthew
Lawrence.
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