Toledo city officials are seeking a court order to shut down for one year a motel just off I-75 in East Toledo with a history of criminal-activity problems.
A civil complaint filed in Toledo Municipal Court last week states Toledo police were called to the Days Inn at 1800 Miami St. more than 180 times from January, 2018, to the Dec. 8 filing. Reported crimes over that nearly two-year span included prostitution, drug activity and overdoses, rape, assault, arson, weapons violations, robberies, theft, and disorderly conduct.
“We want to make sure that people coming to Toledo and visiting hotels are safe, that there’s nothing that’s going to be harmful to them during their stay,” John Madigan, a city attorney, said Wednesday afternoon.
Reached by The Blade, the motel’s general manager said he was unaware of the civil suit.
Lt. Jessica Meyer, who oversees the Community Services Section for Toledo police, is part of a multidepartmental team that handles code enforcement issues and nuisance properties. She said officials have already been working with the city’s Department of Neighborhoods and the Toledo Lucas County Homelessness Board to develop a plan to ensure that, if the motel is ordered closed, anyone living there will have somewhere to go.
“We’re concerned about people finding homes when the weather is cold and during a pandemic,” she said. “It’s not supposed to be a long-term place, but we suspect there are people who have stayed there for more than a few weeks.”
Both the lieutenant and Mr. Madigan noted the legal process will take time, so no one is going to be affected immediately.
“We’re not asking for people to be immediately expelled,” Mr. Madigan said.
He also noted the issues at the Days Inn have been a “longstanding problem” dating back several years.
Toledo Police Chief George Kral on Oct. 16, 2018 and Feb. 4, 2019 sent notices to Toledo Nights, Inc., the motel’s owner, of public nuisance conditions and ordering the business to cease maintaining the property as a public nuisance. But the problems have continued, the complaint states. More than 200 pages of documents, primarily copies of police reports, are included with the filing.
Cincinnati-based Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, LLC, which holds the Days Inn brand, is also named as a defendant in the complaint.
The city alleges the business knowingly allowed criminal activities to continue and employees “directly or indirectly participated in a pattern of activity by permitting criminal acts to be visited upon" both residents and visitors to the motel.
The complaint also includes information regarding building-code violations related to structural, electrical, plumbing, and heating and air conditioning issues found during a May inspection. A fire code inspection in November revealed multiple additional issues, the record states.
The city is asking the court to close the motel because it “constitutes an immediate and irreparable harm to the health, safety, and welfare” of Toledo citizens, and that it remained padlocked and not allowed to reopen for one year.
The motel has not yet filed an answer to the complaint, nor has the court set a hearing date in the case.
First Published December 16, 2020, 7:30 p.m.
