Court Orders Receiver to Take Over Crime-Plagued La Sierra Motel

A Riverside Superior Court judge ruled that the city can appoint a receiver to take over the Riverside Inn & Suites — a property that has racked up dozens of crimes and code violations over the years — the city announced on Wednesday.

"We've even gone through the efforts of invoicing them for extraordinary police responses," Councilmember Jim Perry, who represents the area, said in a video statement outside the motel. He said the city pursued the receivership through Riverside Superior Court after other enforcement efforts failed to resolve the problems.

The motel, located at 10705 Magnolia Avenue near Polk Street, has drawn police responses for years over what Deputy City Attorney Jacob Castrejon described in court filings as ongoing "narcotic, criminal, and nuisance activity" that poses a danger to guests, neighbors and the wider public.

The receivership means a court-appointed manager — not the motel's current owners — will now be responsible for running the property, paying its bills and fixing years of neglected repairs. City attorneys argued that without that change, "the extremely unsafe criminal and substandard conditions will continue."

Offenses documented at the property include drug possession, sales and overdoses, assaults, prostitution, weapons violations, attempted murder, sexual assault and child endangerment, according to the city's court filings. Officials say many people found at the motel had outstanding felony warrants, were on probation or post-release supervision, or had known histories of drug use.

In one instance cited in the filings, a person who admitted buying fentanyl at the motel called it "the drug capital of the world" and said someone there was known to sell the drug to homeless residents in the area.

City code enforcement officers who inspected the property over the past 18 months found building and safety violations that went largely unaddressed, including structural problems, unpermitted construction, mold, cockroach infestations, and plumbing, fire and electrical hazards.

"The failure of the Defendants to properly maintain the Subject Property has resulted in an unceasing flow of criminal activity at the motel and within its rooms as well," Castrejon wrote in the filings, adding that conditions included "feces and urine throughout the area."

Perry, who has pushed for stronger code enforcement at the Riverside Inn & Suites and four other motels along the Magnolia Avenue corridor, said the receivership caps off a two-year effort.

"This property is well-known to law enforcement on the West End of our city," Perry said in a statement. "I am gratified to see two years of work result in the granting of a receivership that will begin turning this property around."

In the video, Assistant City Attorney Jack Liu said the Riverside Inn & Suites is the first of five Magnolia corridor properties the city is targeting for similar action.

"This will allow the city not only to ensure that the safety of its residents and guests here at the Riverside Inn are [ensured], but also the community as a whole," Liu said. "This is just one of five properties we're taking this action... This is just step one of five, and this is our effort to clean up and improve the quality of life in this neighborhood."

Perry put it more bluntly in the video statement: the city has warned other problem properties along the corridor to clean up on their own. "If you don't clean up your act, the city will do it for you," he said, "and if the city does it for you, you're not going to like it."

Under the receivership, the court-appointed manager will take full control of the property, covering expenses such as taxes, insurance, utilities and debt payments, and will hire licensed contractors to address the building's structural problems.