The Jackson Environmental Court's war on wayward hotel owners continued when a the owner of a neglected hotel went to jail yesterday.
Noah Muthana owns Hotel O on 4639 I-55 N frontage road in Jackson. Hinds County property tax records state he has owned the hotel for two years.
Jackson cited Muthana for six code violations in June 2022. Jackson Municipal Court Judge Jeff Reynolds adjudicated the case on December 16. He said the hotel had unsafe electrical wiring, the roof was in a serious state of disrepair, defective plumbing, pervasive mold, and structural weaknesses. Residency-challenged individuals occupied the building even though there was no power. However, one should never underestimate human ingenuity, even among the residency-challenged. The squatters simply ran extension cords to outlets on adjacent properties. The Court said some cords were in contact with water. A detective testified Muthana had three employees who lived on the proeprty.
There was also a problem that became a sore point of contention for the court. The hotel had an empty swimming pool that lacked any fencing. Pictures of the violations are included in the documents posted below.
The Court said Muthana made no effort to improve the property. If anything, the property was "worse today than it was in November 2021, when the city first began investigating the property."
Judge Reynolds ruled the property was extremely dangerous and found Muthana guilty as charged. The Court ordered Muthana to bring the hotel up to code within 150 days and 45 days to submit a site-plan application. Judge Reynolds sentenced Muthana to serve 90 days in jail but suspended the sentence pending his fulfillment of the two conditions of the order. The Court set the defendant's appearance bond at $1 million. A Jackson official said it would cost at least $1,265,000 to bring the property into compliance. A Code Enforcement Officer said it would cost approximately $200,000 to demolish the hotel.
Muthana did not submit a site plan nor was any effort made to correct any of the violations although he did attempt to personally install a fence around the pool.
Blowing off the Court meant the defendant got to face the wrath of Reynolds yesterday. Judge Reynolds held a hearing and found Muthana to be in contempt of court.
Judge Reynolds ordered Muthana remain incarcerated until:
* all "residents" in Hotel O are removed.
* all extension chords on the grounds of Hotel O are removed
* a plan for the construction of a fence around the pool is submitted to site plan review.
Hinds County jail records state Muthana is still incarcerated.
39 comments:
$1,265,000. Lol, good luck making that back in Jackson.
What a $hithole. How much did he pay for it...and, why?
"Residency-challenged individuals" KF has gone woke on us.
He now has a new hotel to manage - the GRAY-BAR HOTEL.
Reynolds is the only one in city government DOING something!!
The new radical city.
@1:05 - can you define woke for us?
1:05 - It's called satire.
It's a damn shame that the rest of the judicial corp in Jackson & Hinds County are not as tough as this Judge Reynolds. Jackson would have a glimmer of hope if that were the case.
How does a person complete all of those to-do items from jail? Where do we draw the line? Send people to jail for ugly yards?
This SOB won't spend a dime on that rathole-
Will Antar and Rukia be objecting to this improvement and judicial effectiveness in the same manner they do all other attempts to improve Jackson?
I guess not, since they cannot see a way to monetize this to their benefit or cry racism and appear on MSNBC.
Maybe this investment could have made if the city had provided running water. Now, the self righteous “leaders?” Of Jackson want him to pay for their failures. What kind of message does this send to potential investors in Jackson properties (if there are any)?
1:57P, it was clear that this owner had no intention of bringing his property up to code. Whether that was willful defiance or lack of financial capacity could be debated, but since he refused to make any meaninful effort to work with the City, he deserves to be in jail. The City needs to decide whether the property is too far gone and should be demolished.
Simply put, he effed around and found out.
What's next, debtor's prison, enforced by the "red coats?"
@1:17 PM - Yes, and so is 1:05's comment.
1:57, you’re not serious surely. Comparing this to an “ugly yard?” This property is held out to the PUBLIC as an inn, a place to pay money to stay. THAT’S why there are heightened regulations and responsibilities above and beyond what you do in your own home. This place should be ordered demolished like the Briarwood office bldg. NO ONE is going to ever stay in this “hotel.”
Still do not understand how the judge can cite someone for a crime when the man does not own the hotel. A company owns the hotel.
@ 2:20. Your question begs another one. Do you support slum lords?
I agree Judge Reynolds is doing a great job. However, this was in front of the Court because the City filed and pushed this action to protect its municipal ordinances. The City, under Mayor Lumumba’s leadership, deserves some credit for taking action to clean up these dangerous properties in the City. Any Judge who was trying to do the right thing would have done what Judge Reynolds did.
Prove that there is no back-end deal for one of da Mayah's pals to swoop in and benefit from the freshly razed site (hence the only reason he is suddenly doing ONE aspect of his job) and I will give him a modicum of kudos for doing the absolute bare minimum of his responsibilities.
The bar is really that low for him.
@ 2:14 Investor my ass-
2:42 PM
You should learn that businesses are owned by people. Yes the hotel may be owned by Y & S 10 LLC, but the registered agent is Noah Muthana. You'd know that if you knew how to search for businesses a the Secretary of State website.
@2:21 - that’s a very woke response. Watch out the anti-woke crowd won’t like you being so woke.
I can see fines and I can see a taking by eminent domain, but jail? In America? I agree with the other poster who asked where does it stop? And why just this guy? Have you seen the conditions of hundreds of other properties in Jackson? The old Ramada? The old hilltop Holiday Inn? The old Masonic temple on Capitol?
OYO Hotel - move in there, you're truly On Your Own.
The low bar for closing down an inn, motel or rathole on 80 is when a customer occupies a room, breaks out the stuck bathroom window and shoots a rifle at travelers on Interstate 20. Then's the time to pay attention.
If one were profiting, directly or indirectly, from meth labs or human trafficking operations on one's property, then it would probably be to one's advantage to have some sort of PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY built into the arrangement.
"I knew nothing about it! Those people had no permission to be there!"
"I didn't know those extension cords were there!"
"I've never seen those girls, before!"
"I had no idea that those truckloads of undocumented persons were being offloaded into those vacant rooms!"
Just random musings, prompted by wondering how one derives PROFIT from owning properties and letting them rot...
How did Muthana finance his purchase of this property?
Indian and Pakistani Hindus are an interesting, sometimes peculiar, set of business owners in Gas Stations, Convenience Stores and Motels.
Some are quite adept and profitable at shaping their marketing around niche markets. Others are just cheap and dirty operators.
If Jeff keeps shutting down these drug hotels Chokwe will try to replace him.
Meanwhile the homeless are allowed to live all over the city.
Uh, 3:28…2:42 here. I use the SOS website several times weekly. Not asking a business question but a legal, due process, criminal procedure question.
3:52pm
When homeless vagrants are permitted to live in a derelict building, running illegal electrical cords through pools of water, creating repositories of human waste, building fires for cooking and heating, such commercial property is dangerous to the vagrants and others.
Further, it deflates nearby property values and risks fires.
When a State doesn't have laws to protect from owners of buildings and properties allowed to become dangers and eyesores, an "environmental" law is all you have...you know taking a sling shot to a battle when the enemy has been given a guided missiles.
I agree with Krusatyr.
I support the intent. My interest lies more in how these hellholes are selected.
There are a whole lot of them in the contest. I am just curious how they select winners...er, losers.
@3:52 on 3-15-23. These people are jailed for criminal contempt of court. They have been ordered to do something, failed to do it, and accordingly are sentenced to jail until they purge themselves of their contempt. Just like deadbeat dads who won't pay court-ordered child support. It's amazing how quickly deadbeat dads and slum lords find money to get themselves out of jail.
Anonymous Anonymous said...
"How did Muthana finance his purchase of this property?
Indian and Pakistani Hindus are an interesting, sometimes peculiar, set of business owners in Gas Stations, Convenience Stores and Motels.
Some are quite adept and profitable at shaping their marketing around niche markets. Others are just cheap and dirty operators."
March 15, 2023 at 6:59 PM
Apparently, it's NOT a Hindu name. The Google results pointed to a competing religion.
That used to be one hotel that they divided into two. Is only one side condemned? Is the other side still in business?
@9:17PM Describe your plan for handling homelessness. I'm sure it's spectacular and you just haven't pitched it to the right folks yet. Keep pushing. Fix it in Jackson, then do paid consulting for every other major city in the world and fix it for them too. Retire rich. Easy.
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