Eva LaRue (ex-Maria Santos) has been ordered to remove a wooden gate she illegally constructed outside her California home. The Emmy-nominated actress had the gate installed three years ago to protect her and her child from a stalker -- but she did so without the proper permit. A city code enforcement official cited LaRue because the gate was built too close to the public right-of-way. She was later granted a variance by the city of Glendale. That didn't sit well with neighbors, who were up in arms over what they saw as a celebrity getting preferential treatment.
Neighbors took the matter to city council, and the variance was overturned.
"I'm looking to you for safety and protection, and I am literally begging you to let me keep my gate," LaRue said to council members at a meeting in January. "I'm a single mom. I know that this gate can't really protect me from somebody that wants to do me and my 8-year-old harm, but at least it is some sort of barrier."
Last week, the city council ruled 4-1 against LaRue and the actress was forced to have the gate removed. Because the gate fight became a matter of public record, so, too, did LaRue's home address. LaRue states that her stalker sent a letter to her home telling her "I now where you live now." Fearing for her safety, LaRue has now moved out of her home.
LaRue is now living with her fiancé, businessman Joe Cappuccio. The two are slated to marry later this year.
LaRue appeared on All My Children from 1993 to 1997, and again from 2002 to 2005. Earlier this year, LaRue appeared on the show's 40th anniversary episode. She was previously married to her former All My Children co-star, John Callahan (ex-Edmund Grey). Together they have one child, Kayla McKenna.