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Sheriff's dispatch called to Harrison Twp. hotel 1,900 times

This woman and her son, who did not want to be identified, plan to move to St. Vincent Homeless Shelter after the North Plaza Inn was closed. She said the rooms cost $150 a week, the cheapest in town.

Jim Noelker/Staff photographer This woman and her son, who did not want to be identified, plan to move to St. Vincent Homeless Shelter after the North Plaza Inn was closed. She said the rooms cost $150 a week, the cheapest in town.

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Crime-ridden hotel's fate to be decided by court action

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By Lou Grieco, Staff Writer Updated 10:42 AM Monday, November 23, 2009

HARRISON TWP., Montgomery County — During the two-and-a-half years before county officials shut down the North Plaza Inn, the hotel was the site of 1,900 calls to Montgomery County Sheriff’s dispatch.

“Effective today, that’s it,” said Montgomery County Prosecutor Mathias H. Heck Jr., as county officials closed down the hotel, 3636 N. Dixie Drive [MAP], on Thursday, Nov. 19.

Heck’s office is trying to get the hotel closed permanently as a public nuisance. Prosecutors cite numerous arrests for prostitution and drug-related incidents that occurred at the hotel.

One day before the county changed the locks and barricaded the parking lot, Common Pleas Judge Connie S. Price issued a temporary injunction and closing order.

Price held hearings over four days in late October and early November to hear testimony about various problems and arrests at the hotel.

To permanently close the hotel, Price will have to hold a civil trial. The parties will have a scheduling conference Jan. 14.

Heck said it took time to build the case that the hotel was a nuisance and that the owner and management was maintaining that nuisance.

“This has been a real blight on the community,” Heck said.

What happened at the hotel rarely made media accounts. One exception was when Rachel White was arrested in April 2008 for prostituting her 17-year-old daughter at the hotel. White is now serving an 30-month prison term.

But area residents noticed. Lois Lynch, who lives nearby, said she saw pimps standing with prostitutes outside the hotel. Some people would cross North Dixie into Dayton to make drug deals in front of the neighbors’ houses, she said.

The hotel is owned by Empire Hospitality Group, which is owned by Sridar Kadaba. Kadaba, a Web site developer who works in Manhattan and lives in East Brunswick, N.J., is negotiating a sale of the hotel, according to a brief filed by his attorney, Anne Frayne.

The brief paints Kadaba as a real estate investor who has been able to clean up other troubled hotels he has invested in. It also notes that much of the Dixie strip is known for crime problems, and that the hotel had that reputation before Kadaba purchased it.

Kadaba tried to work with the sheriff’s office when notified of the problems, according to the brief.

However, another brief filed by Assistant County Prosecutor Victoria Watson said that “Kadaba’s management of the North Plaza Inn has been inept at best.”

Watson’s brief said that Kadaba did not hire a security company or secure the exterior doors until after the county’s lawsuit was filed Oct. 15.

Watson’s brief also said that:

• Kadaba’s property manager was arrested at the hotel Sept. 28 for felony drug violations. He has since been indicted and is awaiting trial

• Sheriff’s Deputy Josh Haas testified he has seen Kadaba in the hotel’s Jacuzzi room “with several known prostitutes.”

• Haas testified that, on one occasion, a 3-year-old child at the hotel was stuck with a used hypodermic needle.

“The defendants have shown themselves unable or unwilling to effectively address the prostitution and drug activity at the hotel despite direct knowledge of these problems,” Watson wrote.

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