EX-MAYORAL HOPEFUL CHARGED IN ASSAULT.

Byline: Dana Bartholomew Staff Writer

ENCINO - A former candidate for San Fernando Valley mayor was charged Thursday with assault after police said he held a woman at gunpoint for defacing one of his burglar alarm company's mobile billboards.

Bruce John Boyer, 42, of Reseda was arraigned in Van Nuys Superior Court on four misdemeanor counts of assault with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment and brandishing a loaded firearm, officials said.

The owner of Lone Star Security and Video Inc., Boyer was being held in lieu of $50,000 bail. If convicted of all counts, he could be sentenced to four years in prison.

Boyer was arrested at 10:15 p.m. Tuesday after he pointed a .30-caliber rifle at a young woman he believed was vandalizing a Lone Star billboard trailer parked in front of her home, police and witnesses said.

``He believed she was vandalizing it and confronted her at gunpoint and forced her on her knees with a rifle until police arrived,'' said Los Angeles police Detective Ron Robbins.

``Very seldom do we see people using weapons to initiate a citizen's arrest. She was momentarily detained, but not arrested.''

Boyer, who represented himself in court, could not be reached for comment. A Lone Star official said Boyer told his mother that he drew his weapon in self-defense.

``My understanding was that there was a crowd of people and he pulled a gun at them because they threatened him,'' said Lone Star Vice President Fred Parks. ``According to his mother, he was afraid.''

Boyer, a Libertarian who finished sixth among 10 candidates for Valley mayor in last fall's secession election, has raised the hackles of residents and city officials for his numerous mobile billboards parked on city streets throughout the Valley.

Leslie Hepburn said she had posted numerous messages asking Lone Star to remove the 6-foot-high trailer sign parked in front of her house in the 5900 block of White Oak Avenue.

She said she'd had enough Tuesday when she decided to tear off the unsightly advertisement. Boyer emerged from his car with an M-1 carbine military rifle, shoved her to the ground and held her until police arrived five to 10 minutes later, she said.

```It's my job to catch criminals and now I've got you,''' Hepburn recalled Boyer screaming. ```This is a citizen's arrest. If you move, I'll shoot you.'

``I thought I was going to die,'' she said.

Parks said Boyer had staked out White Oak Avenue sign after it had been vandalized 12 times in two weeks.

``It's legal, it's licensed and it's private property,'' he said. ``You can't cut somebody's private property up.''

Boyer, a former Boy Scout leader and president of the National Rifle Association members' council, has had other recent brushes with the law.

He is scheduled to be arraigned Monday on a charge of battery related to an Aug. 18 dispute with an impound clerk. And a Sept. 30 trial is scheduled on 15 counts of posting illegal signs.

The City Council has voted to consider suing Boyer for false advertising for posting signs declaring, ``LAPD will no longer respond to your alarm! Lone Star Security will.''

And Boyer has been under investigation by the state Fair Political Practices Commission for not reporting campaign funding sources and expenditures.

Councilman Dennis Zine asked Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, D-Van Nuys, to introduce state legislation to outlaw curbside advertising.

Dana Bartholomew, [phone]

dana.bartholomew(at)dailynews.com