As a result, the city carried out a coordinated effort to close and secure the site Monday. A team representing the city’s police, building and public works departments, plus members of the Tactical Crime Suppression Unit task force conducted the operation, police said.
Police said a large majority of the motel’s 73 rooms were occupied Monday, meaning dozens of people had to suddenly find a new place to stay for the night, or for some, live longer-term.
“We had social services through Montgomery County as well as the Animal Resource Center on site today to help folks get moved to a place that’s more safe for them,” said Miamisburg police spokeswoman Cynthia Threlkeld, adding that Homefull and Miami Valley Fair Housing were on site. City officials said, “To the extent necessary, the occupants will be offered assistance to find other accommodations.”
K. Philip Callahan, the city’s law director, on Friday, filed a complaint seeking a restraining order, a preliminary injunction, and a permanent injunction against “the ongoing nuisance activities” occurring at the the motel, which is just southwest of the I-75/Ohio 725 interchange.
The motel is “a hotbed of criminal nuisance activity — primarily related to illegal drug use,” he said, adding that at least three deaths have occurred there in 2023, including two in the last month that are attributable to drug overdoses.
“The city receives a continuous stream of calls for service for drug use, drug trafficking, overdoses, and other medical emergencies related to illicit drug use occurring on the property,” Callahan said in the complaint. “There’s no shortage of other serious crimes committed at the Rodeway Inn in addition to the ever-present drug-related activity.”
Residents found their lives upended Monday by their forced removal from the site, with some telling this news outlet they weren’t given any time frame at all for leaving while others said they were told to be out in as little as 20 minutes.
Brenda Cominsky, 61, said she and her 29-year-old daughter moved into the motel Aug. 18.
“We were living with relatives (and) no longer wanted to live there,” she said. “This was relatively cheap, to a point, and we moved here just to have a place to live.”
Cominsky said that “not too long” after they moved, they became aware of the motel’s less-than-desirable elements, including fights in the parking lot and “just the way that people come in and out of the rooms, the knocks on the doors all hours of the night.”
“You can hear somebody knocking on the doors beside you, as well as on my door, even though we know nobody in town,” she said.
Cominsky said she and her daughter plan to move in with the daughter’s in-laws until they can find enough money for another place to stay.
Nancy O’Hara said she was “very upset” about being told she and her cat had to move out on Monday after paying for the week at the motel on Saturday.
“I have more stuff in there that I would have moved out if I had enough warning” she said. “I’m going to try to go (to a hotel) across the street. I don’t know if I can get a room or not.”
Joshua Hilligas, who said he lost his house a few months ago, packed his belongings into his truck after getting home from work and being forced out of the Rodeway Inn. Hilligas said he had been staying at the motel for two months.
“No notice,” he said. “I come home from work and (they told me) now ‘You gotta be out’ ... so I’ll be sleeping in my truck with my dog tonight.”
Hilligas said he knew the people staying in the rooms on either side of him and hadn’t seen many problems of the type described in the complaint.
“I guess everybody looks at everybody as just a criminal ... here, but not everybody’s like that,” he said.
The 73-room motel was purchased in March 2022 by Aayu Satva LLC for $1,850,000, according to Montgomery County Auditor’s Office records. The Dayton Daily News unsuccessfully attempted to reach Rodeway Inn’s owner Monday.
Callahan said the city often responds to calls for service related to felony theft offenses, prostitution, sexual assault and rape, and other violent crimes, many of which involve the use of a deadly weapon. He said those charged with ownership and management of the Rodeway Inn are aware of the criminal nuisance activity on the property and have taken no action to address the problems.
“In fact, the problems at the Rodeway Inn over the last few months are escalating at an alarming pace,” he said in the complaint.
Calls to the site numbered 225 by Oct. 5 this year, as opposed 146 calls by Oct. 5, 2022 and 176 calls for all of 2022, according to data obtained from the Miamisburg Police Department by this news outlet Monday.
On Sept. 25 and 26, city first responders discovered two people dead in Rodeway Inn rooms of apparent drug overdoses on back-to-back days.
The city of Miamisburg’s court complaint was verified by both Police Chief John Sedlak and Miami Valley Fire District Chief Brandon Barnett. The complaint asks that the property be closed for at least one year. The city is seeking an order to eliminate the motel by either demolishing it or through a permanent injunction that prevents the defendants from maintaining it.
Threlkeld said the property owner has the opportunity to appeal the injunction, but the site has numerous fire code and building violations it must rectify, “so they have some work ahead of them.”
Threlkeld said the city hoped to provide residents with resources and options to help them move on.
“I’m sure no one came here today thinking that they were not going to be living here tonight, so we want to make sure that we give them the best possible opportunity to have ... a safe living environment and give them all the resources they can,” she said.
Threlkeld said whatever possessions residents could not manage to move from rooms on Monday would be made available by contacting police at 937-225-4357.
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