Village Inn residents file suit against city

Jul. 13—A group of former residents of the Village Inn have filed a class action complaint alleging the city of Crossville violated their civil rights when city officials closed the Village Inn complex in July 2022.

The city cited various safety code violations, such as inoperable smoke detectors and structural concerns. But the complex was reopened the next day with the city saying there had been a lack of due process in the closure.

"Working in concert, Defendants forced the Plaintiffs to vacate the apartments that they rented, without cause of notice or judicial order, despite the fact that city had attempted to evict the residents several times in the last few years only to be denied an order signed by judge," stated the complaint filed June 20 in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.

Livingston attorney John Nisbet is representing 10 of the displaced residents. There were 125 residents living in 42 units at the former-motel-turned-low-income-housing complex at the time of the closure.

The lawsuit names the city of Crossville, Crossville Police Detective Koby Wilson, Crossville Codes Officer Zach Young, Crossville Police Chief Jessie Brooks, 10 unnamed officers with the Crossville Police Department, Crossville Codes Director Danny Thurman, Crossville Firefighter Casey Worsham, Crossville Fire Chief Chris South, Crossville Firefigher Thomas Smith, Crossville Firefigher Terry L. Potter and Crossville Firefighter Jeremy Mangas. Each individual is being named in the complaint both in their official capacity with the city of Crossville and as private individuals.

The suit claims the defendants deprived the Fourth and 14th Amendment rights of the residents without reasonable grounds to do so.

Crossville Attorney Randy York told the Crossville City Council July 11 the lawsuit had been turned over to the city's insurance carrier for defense.

The suit alleges that Wilson developed a scheme to close the Village Inn after returning from a class on narcotics investigation.

Wilson applied for a warrant to search one of the rooms at the Village Inn, seeking approximately $455 in bills that had prerecorded serial numbers that the department said were derived from the sale of controlled substances. The warrant also sought scales, ledgers, other records related to the illegal sale of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia.

A meeting was held at Crossville City Hall the afternoon before the search, with representatives present from the Crossville Police Department, Crossville Fire Department, Crossville Codes Enforcement and Cumberland County Emergency Medical Services.

The search yielded a set of digital scales and an empty gram bag. No one was arrested or charged in connection with the search warrant, which is said to be part of an ongoing investigation.

When officers entered the room, they reported they observed conditions that sparked a wider investigation of the facility. The initial press release from the city police department said the floor of the room that was the target of the search had standing water and residents were walking on boards.

Law enforcement asked for personnel with the Crossville Fire Department to assess the room. A report from Worsham said that sparked an assessment of the entire property. Inspectors with the fire and codes department "performed a door to door life safety inspection" with verbal permission from tenants who were on site.

The report from Crossville Fire Chief Chris South says, "We found a lack of safe sufficient fire escapes from both buildings, absent or non-functioning fire alarms to notify occupants of a fire, the building was dilapidated and unsafe structurally to inhabit until further evaluated, numerous electrical shock hazards and potential ignition sources that present a hazard to life and health and high probability of fire and flammable storage in the means of egress in several areas of the structure."

South cited Tennessee law on "Buildings inherently dangerous or containing inflammable matter — Dangerous or defective conditions — Removal or remedies," TCA 68-102-117, and Section 111 and 113.1 of the 2018 International Fire Code, adopted by the city of Crossville as the authority to order the building vacated and utility service discontinued.

Nisbet writes this closure was unreasonable and conducted without judicial process without legal cause or court order.

"The plaintiffs thus immediately became temporarily homeless. Each plaintiff was compelled to find temporary housing (some with assistance provided by City personnel and other non-profits already on-site," the complaint states.

The action was reversed the following day, but the codes department then issued a lengthy list of code violations, providing property owner Dr. Robert "Buck" Wood 10 days to bring the property into compliance.

Buck Wood and property manager Steve Threet both said in the aftermath of the closure that the building was not unsafe, and they worked through a number of building issues cited in an inspection by the Tennessee Fire Marshal's office the week following the Village Inn closure and reopening.

During a special-called meeting of the Crossville City Council the following week, then City Attorney Will Ridley said he only learned of the closure after it had occurred through social media posts. He recommended City Manager Greg Wood be suspended for failure to seek legal advice in the matter, adding he had reviewed the need for due process in a closure on "three or four" prior occasions.

Greg Wood was at a medical appointment the day of the closure and, afterward, sequestered following exposure to the COVID-19 virus.

The council also engaged the services of a Chattanooga law firm, Robinson, Smith and Wells, to conduct an independent investigation of the matter and report back to the council.

Over the next several weeks, Greg Wood submitted a resignation which the council did not accept. He then rescinded his resignation and awaited the completion of the investigative report.

The council voted 3-2 to retain Wood during a special-called meeting the day after the investigative report was completed. During the meeting held in August 2022, members of council pointed to procedural errors in the report among the reasons to seek the manager's termination. Other council members, however, said they believed city employees "acted in good faith."

The investigative report has not been released to the public. It is currently the focus of two public records lawsuits pending against the city of Crossville: one from property manager Threet and the second filed in June by the Crossville Chronicle through the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Those cases are continuing.

The council also heard from 13th Judicial District Attorney General Bryant Dunaway who said his office had been considering bringing a nuisance lawsuit against the Village Inn. The city's closure had caused him to reconsider that action, Dunaway said.

A public nuisance lawsuit is a civil suit, but the district attorney is authorized to file such actions. Dunaway filed a successful public nuisance lawsuit against the Budget Inn in Cumberland County in 2015.

Dunaway said his office has no direct involvement in the Village Inn closure and his office would not pursue a public nuisance lawsuit.

Nisbet writes, "As a direct and proximate result of the police officers', fire and codes personnels' conduct, each plaintiff suffered the immediate loss of her home and all of its physical and emotional comforts as well as spoiling refrigerated food and medicines. In addition, for the several days before the plaintiffs could enforce their legal right to possessions, the plaintiffs suffered the physical discomfort and emotional trauma of being homeless."

The complaint says "no reasonable" official could have believed they had legal authority to remove the plaintiffs from their rental property without judicial process, and the conduct of the individuals named was "willful, wanton, malicious and in utter disregard for the plaintiffs' legal rights."

Nisbet seeks certification of the lawsuit as a class action suit for the named plaintiffs and other Village Inn residents who were impacted by the closure. He claims the defendants violated the rights of the residents against unlawful search and seizure and due process guarantees of the U.S. Constitution, and that the defendants engaged in conduct constituting "arbitrary power over the plaintiffs' lives, liberty and property," and their rights under Section 7 of the Tennessee Constitution, "that the people shall be secure in their persons, houses, papers and possessions, from unreasonable searches and seizures."

The lawsuit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages against all defendants and payment of the plaintiff's attorney costs.

The Village Inn was closed after owner Buck Wood sold the property to the city of Crossville for $465,000. The city closed on the property in early May. No use for the land has been identified, though the city is accepting bids for demolition of the property.

Heather Mullinix is editor of the Crossville Chronicle. She covers schools and education in Cumberland County. She may be reached at hmullinix@crossville-chronicle.com.