Buckeye Lake motel owner sues village, mayor, police officials, alleging discrimination
BUCKEYE LAKE − AS Hotels Inc., owner of Buckeye Lake hotel Lake Inn, alleges discrimination, rights violations and unreasonable seizure in a lawsuit against the village of Buckeye Lake and village officials.
The lawsuit, filed Oct. 12 in U.S. District Court, was one of the reasons listed to recall Buckeye Lake Mayor Jeryne Peterson, according to an organizer of the recall effort.
A special recall election will be held Feb. 27, unless the mayor resigns in the coming days.
The lawsuit, filed by AS Hotels, co-owners Sucha “Sonny” Singh and Harbhajan Kaur and manager Amandeep Kaur, names the village, Peterson, Buckeye Lake Police Chief Jason Harget and officers Hiroki Barker and Jason Pereira in the 18-count complaint.
The motel owners seek compensatory and other monetary damages in excess of $75,000, a judgment that the defendants violated the plaintiffs’ First Amendment and Fifth Amendment rights, an injunction prohibiting further retaliation against the plaintiffs and a jury trial.
The 92-room, two-story motel, 10800 Hebron Road, is on 2.4 acres alongside the Interstate 70 eastbound off-ramp to Ohio 79.
The lawsuit alleges the village and Peterson “view and treat the Lake Inn, its owners, employees and guests, as beneath them and have undertaken a targeted campaign against the motel and its owners and employees.
"The village’s police department and code enforcement officer have been tools of this campaign and have violated plaintiffs’ clearly established constitutional rights," the lawsuit states. "The village’s lawless disregard of constitutional rights starts at the top, with the mayor and chief of police, Jason Harget.”
AS Hotels alleges in its lawsuit that Harget, police officers, code enforcement officer, fire chief and other village employees came to the motel April 3 in response to a single complaint from an alleged guest about an alleged bed bug.
The officials inspected eight to 10 rooms and condemned the motel for an infestation of bed bugs and alleged structural support issues in stairwells and steel beams supporting the second floor, according to the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs allege they were never provided written violation notices. Code Enforcement Officer Rex Adkins never found any live bed bugs, the lawsuit states. The 50 to 60 guests were to leave the motel before 7 p.m., and the motel was closed indefinitely.
“When the (village) received an alleged report of a bed bug, it launched a full-scale campaign to close the hotel and failed to provide plaintiffs with any written notice of what they could do to reopen the hotel, the operation of which constitutes their livelihood,” the complaint states.
In a Dec. 19 response to the lawsuit, the village claims the April 3 visit to the motel was not a response to a single complaint, but one guest did complain of physical injuries. The motel was closed because of structural support issues and, with authorization from the State Fire Marshal, due to the presence of bed bugs, according to the village’s response.
During the eviction, Amandeep Kaur told officers they were racist, and the village targeted them because they are Indian Americans. The lawsuit states that Kaur was then placed in handcuffs and put into the police department vehicle in retaliation for her comments, without being read her rights.
The plaintiffs also allege that when Kaur asked to speak with her attorney, the police chief lied when he responded that “your attorney has already been called.”
“It is unclear whether defendants’ campaign of harassment and intimidation is just for fun, or whether there is a larger end game of forcing plaintiffs out of the village with hopes of luring new development to prime real estate,” the lawsuit states.
The village states in its response the actions were not motivated by race, ancestry, national origin, heritage or any other improper reason. It also states that attorney Carl McCoy, who represented Sucha “Sonny” Singh, was contacted.
In the police report, officer Barker states Kaur was advised to return to the office to work on removing all tenants but continued to argue with police, who warned her she could be charged with disorderly conduct.
“She then turned towards officers and raised her voice again after being told and given plenty of warnings to stop what she was doing,” Barker wrote. “She told officers that if we want to arrest her then to arrest her. She then advanced towards officers in an attempt to confront them again.”
Officers then tried to detain her, and she resisted, according to the report. She was then handcuffed, put in the cruiser and read her Miranda rights, Barker’s report states. Kaur has been verbally abusive to police on previous calls, Barker said.
“Officers have been verbally abused every time they have responded to the Lake Inn on different calls,” Barker writes in the report. “Several incidents have occurred where officers responded to assist parties for being threatened and verbally abused by Sucha and his co-owners and managers to where it causes a physical or verbal disturbance.”
The plaintiffs allege they didn't learn from village officials until April 15 what code violations forced the motel to be condemned. Most of the issues were “warning notices” of cosmetic issues, not citations that could legally trigger a condemnation order, according to the complaint.
An Orkin Pest Control canine inspection on April 12 found no live bed bug contamination, according to the lawsuit, and Orkin treated five rooms April 15 because of trace indications of previous bed bugs and found two live bed bugs in one room.
On April 13, the village warned the property owner, identifying violations that must be addressed, including sanitation issues, accessory structures in disrepair, unlicensed vehicles on the property, unsafe conditions, rotten wood, broken glass, structural repairs, holes in walls, rooms without screens in windows, broken floor tiles, baseboard molding, broken faucets and toilets and faulty smoke detectors.
The village requested the motel owners resolve all the stated issues by May 15.
Jesse Shamp, an attorney with Frost Brown Todd and representing the motel owners, said the motel was closed for about a month, but the second floor has still not reopened.
There had been no subsequent issues in the motel, Shamp said, until about three weeks ago when there was a complaint about bed bugs. Orkin has responded to that complaint, he said.
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Twitter: @kmallett1958
This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Buckeye Lake motel owner files lawsuit against village, mayor, police
