May 27—For the second time this month, the City of Greenville has filed suit against a local motel due to repeated criminal activity at the property.
The petition for an abatement of a common nuisance, along with an application for temporary and permanent injunctions, was filed Tuesday in the 354th District Court against Hunt County Hospitality, also known as the Express Inn and Suites at 1215 Interstate 30.
In the petition, City Attorney Daniel Day claimed the hotel has been the scene of a high rate of crime.
“From January 1, 2019, to February 12, 2023, there have been over 171 responses by law enforcement to The Express Inn … generating over 67 police reports and 30 arrests,” Ray said. “An average of three law enforcement officers per response were required to respond to this location to deal with the repeated problems from this property.”
Of those calls, the suit claimed there were 48 violations for drug possession/narcotics, three violations for robbery and nine violations for aggravated assault.
“The Defendants have failed or refused to abate the nuisances and are likely to continue to maintain Express Inn as a common nuisance unless restrained by injunctive orders,” Ray said.
The suit is seeking a temporary injunction which would first require the defendants, in this case the owners of the motel, file one or more bonds in the amount of between $5,000 to $10,00 each, “and be conditioned that the defendants will not knowingly allow a common nuisance to exist at that place.”
Should additional violations occur, the court would have the authority to impose multiple sanctions, including revoking the motel’s occupancy permit, cutting off utilities to the building and prohibiting access to or from the property.
If so, then the motel would be closed for one year from the date of the order of the bond forfeiture.
As of Friday morning, no hearings had been scheduled with the court regarding the suit and it was unknown whether the owners of the property named in the petition had yet been served.
The city filed a similar petition two weeks ago against the Economy Inn, 5103 Interstate 30, alleging it was a common nuisance due to repeated criminal activity. No hearings had been scheduled in the case as of Friday morning.