Jackson Municipal Court Judge Jeff Reynolds had enough and issued a warrant for the arrest of Hotel O owner Noah Ali Mehmet Muthana.
Muthana appealed the Municipal Court order to Hinds County Court last year but County Court Judge Johnny McDaniels dismissed the case last August. The defendant filed a notice of appeal in September with the County Court. He finally got around to filing a record of appeal and paying the cost of appeal with the Circuit Court this week. Muthana still has not filed an actual appeal with the Circuit Court.
Attorneys Carlos Tanner and John Hall represent Muthana.
Synopsis of the Case
Muthana has owned Hotel O for more than two years. Jackson Code Enforcement cited Muthana for six code violations in June 2022. Jackson Municipal Court Judge Jeff Reynolds condemned the hotel after finding it had unsafe electrical wiring, defective plumbing, pervasive mold, structural weaknesses, and the roof was in a serious state of disrepair. Residency-challenged individuals occupied the building even though there was no power. However, one should never underestimate human ingenuity, even among such people. The squatters simply ran extension cords to outlets on adjacent properties. Judge Reynolds threw Muthana in jail after determining he made no effort to improve the property. He said the property was in worse shape than when the city began investigating the property in November 2021. The defendant sat in jail for a few days before Judge Reynolds released him. Judge Reynolds ordered JPD to evict all "tenants" from the premises. The judge told Code Enforcement to ensure a secure fence surrounded the pool. Judge Reyonlds ordered Muthana to post a $275,000 secured appearance bond and $2,500 cost bond if he wanted to appeal the order. Muthana appealed to Hinds County Court, arguing the appearance bond was unconstitutional. He paid the $2,500 cost bond.Judge McDaniels never got around to questioning the demolition order because he dismissed Muthana's appeal on August 31, ruling the defendant appealed the case four months after the thirty-day deadline expired in April. However, Muthana did not take his ass-whupping like a man but instead filed a notice of appeal on September 11. The notice states the defendant will appeal the decision to Hinds County Circuit Court. The city filed a motion to dismiss (see, it knows how to do it after all!) on December 1. The motion argues the Court should dismiss any Muthana appeal since he did not post the $275,000 appearance bond nor did he file his notice of appeal within thirty days of the lower court's decision.Earlier post. As Muthana drags out the court fight, the building crumbles. A fire took place several months ago. Rooms are burned out and plywood covers numerous windows. The building has been the scene of numerous crimes over the years, including shootings and aggravated assaults. Judge Reynolds scheduled a hearing on January 10, 2024 after Judge McDaniels remanded the case back to his court. His interim order makes clear his disgust with the hotel and its owner:
In the meantime, while the Defendant games the legal system with meritless appeals, his dangerous eyesore of a Hotel continues to exist and be occupied. The undersigned passes by the shuttered Hotel nearly every day and sees it bustling with people, with multiple cars in the parking lot. A small child was seen recently playing with his toy at the Hotel. And, despite the Fire Marshall shutting the Hotel down as a fire hazard and part of the Hotel, in fact, burning a few months ago, people still live in the Hotel.However, neither Muthana nor his lawyers, Carlos Tanner or John Hall, appeared in court that day. A frustrated Court issued an arrest warrant for Muthana.
Undersigned also strongly believes, based on the testimony in this case, his observations, and experience as a Municipal Judge, that other illegal activity, like prostitution and illegal drug use/sales, is taking place at the Hotel on a daily basis.
This dangerous public nuisance must end.
Although Muthana filed a notice of appeal, he never actually filed an appeal in Circuit Court.
23 comments:
He's probably back in New Delhi.
I don't think that it will buff out.
Wish Reynolds would move faster. The investors who want that property on the cheap are losing their patience.
@12:31,
no investor wants that property as there are blighted and abandoned properties all around Jackson they could snap up if there was money to be made.
@12:11 PM His name is Arabic.
Bs search on LA SOS website has
Member of “FAST STOP OF FLORIDA LLC”, Baton Rouge
Agent of “VAPOR KINGS INC”, Crowley
Vice-President of “VAPOR KINGS INC”
Agent of “M & A 200 INC”
President of “M & A 200 INC”
Secretary/Treasurer of “M & A 200 INC”
Director of “M & A 200 INC”
Officer of “M & A 200 INC”
I am confused? Why would anyone buy this building? He is 21 so was 19 when he bought it? How much did he pay? What was the plan? So many questions.
12:44, is there a mad rush to condemn those properties and arrest the owners?
No price for property in Jackson is cheap enough to ever make a profit. If it was given away it still will not work.
Jackson needs places like this for the many diverse individuals who live there.
I chuckled today when passing. There was a string, 20 to 30 feet long, of clothes drying on the banister out front. Laugh at MS will ya.
I understand that most property, these days, within Jackson, is bought for reasons of tax dodges and US Residency schemes. But that aside, old motels like this would make great alternatives to "Tiny Houses" for the homeless.
The walls are of masonry. There's concrete & metal between floors. Thus, fires tend to be contained within units (which a casual glance at photos of this building will confirm). Bullets and noise, too, are less likely to travel between units.
I could rattle-off a list of new buildings on the good end of Central Park (Manhattan), whose apartments don't have walls as substantial as the walls of those old Holiday Inns. You can pay upwards of ten thousand Dollars per square foot, and not get a unit with the same amount of MASS as is built into those old motels. Much of that mass consists of materials which cannot support combustion.
I know it's silly to point this out, and that nothing, in Jackson, will ever make sense, ever-again. But the people who need that old motel, seem to have found it, and it would be nice to see some sort of shield/ownership-entity for them and their reuse of the structures there.
As someone said, long-ago: "The worst thing about substandard housing, is that there isn't enough of it to go around."
Seems it would be much easier to demolish that place than the Briarwood office building.
You know when the Waffle House in the area leaves - it’s become a very bad place.
@4:56 PM - Those new "tiny houses" are purchased from friend$. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
This could be an easy flip.
Buyer needs to be experienced at renovations.
This one will need plenty of bondo and liquid nails befoere the buffing commences.
Also the high octane oil based stain and odor blocker by the 55 gal drum before the paint.
BONUS! Probably can get locals to apply that stain blocker stuff for free just for the buzz!
The Ritz-Carlton Jackson. When is the last room service?
Drove down Hwy 80 the other day. It is crystal clear that Judge Reynolds hasn't in a long time.
He can only adjudicate the cases the city brings before him.
@4:56
Thank you for having offered a potential solution. So much better than the whiners and know-it-all’s on here.
He isn't hard to find, he runs the Fastlane here on Florida Blvd in Baton Rouge. I see him almost everyday.
Rumor has it the city of Jackson wants the property to house low/no income folks and our friends crossing the southern border. Lots of federal funding in the pipeline for municipalities to create such housing. Same as briarwood location.
@2:08
Obviously not a capitalist.
Post a Comment