City board orders owners to clean up drug-infested motel

It's just one of dozens of low-budget motels along East Hillsborough Avenue.

But Tampa police say the site of the Luxury Motel at 4608 E. Hillsborough Ave. has, for more than a decade, been a magnet for illegal drug sales, prostitution and other criminal activity, including two standoffs with law enforcement officers that ended in gunfire.

In 2000, the property was sold to new owners, Charles and Ella Grubbs, but police say drug dealers and prostitutes still use the property for their illicit trade.

So after building a case against the owners for more than a year, the police department took them before the city's seldom-used Public Nuisance Abatement Board.

On Tuesday, the board declared the property a public nuisance and ordered the owners to hire private security officers and install 24-hour security cameras on the premises.

The owners have 60 days to comply or will face $250 a day in fines from the city.

City law allows the quasi-judicial board to declare a business a nuisance if it has been the site of two or more illegal drug sales in a six-month period. The law also allows the board to take actions - fines, closure and other sanctions - to alleviate the problem.

Several undercover police officers and detectives testified to a long list of documented drug buys and prostitution stings that involved suspects operating out of the motel.

"These are not isolated incidents," David Shobes, an assistant city attorney who is prosecuting the case, told the board members. "This property has been known to local law enforcement officials for years as a place to buy drugs and sex."

The Grubbs did not appear for Tuesday's hearing and not be reached for comment.

The motel was recently shut down by code enforcement officials for a litany of violations, which must be resolved to reopen. Despite that police say the criminal activity on the property has continued.

This isn't the first time the city has tangled with problems on the property.

In 1996, the board closed the Luxury Motel for one year following complaints. But the then-owners sued the city for more than $15,000 in damages, arguing that they had been "deprived of all economic use of the property." The suit was dismissed by a Hillsborough County circuit judge five years after it was filed.

The motel is also where Tampa police shot and killed Frank HeartJr. in 1996 after he stormed out of the door during a standoff. It's also where police shot and killed shotgun-wielding Gary Brewer in October 2005 who took two hostages during a standoff.

City officials said the situation hasn't changed much under the new management.

From 2008 to March 2009, undercover police officers have arrested several individuals for selling crack cocaine from the property, according to Tampa police records.

The case is the first to go before the seven-member volunteer board since city officials resurrected it a year ago, and is being viewed as a test of its regulatory powers.

The board was created in 1990 and was active for a decade until it was disbanded due to a lack of cases. The city brought the board back to life in 2008, but a year passed without it hearing a single case. One board member resigned in protest over the lack of action. Terms of the other six members were to expire in February 2009 and no one had volunteered to fill their shoes.

In March, the city merged the nuisance abatement board with the code enforcement board, a move that was aimed at consolidating the responsibilities of both bodies.

One of the group's main functions is to hear cases about properties where there has been a pattern of drug sales, gangs, prostitution, and dealing in stolen property.

Over the years, there have been a few successes.

Board members closed down the Honky Tonk Bar at 4309 N. 34th St. for about a year in 1998, to put an end to constant complaints about rampant drug sales on the property. And in 2004, the board forced a lingerie modeling shop to install video cameras and remove doors from modeling rooms after three prostitution arrests occurred there.

Lately, however, the board hasn't seen activity.

A major roadblock is the threat of litigation over property rights issues.

A 2001 state Supreme Court ruling limited when nuisance abatement boards could close businesses to instances where the illegal action is intertwined with the business itself.

That means the boards can't close down a hotel where drug dealing is going on unless it can prove that the criminal activity has become an inseparable part of the business.

The ruling was based on lawsuits filed by business owners in Miami and St. Petersburg whose properties were seized by a nuisance board over drug sales and prostitution.