City of Tusculum Press Release
One of the City of Tusculum’s highest priorities is to provide as safe an environment as possible for our citizens, our businesses, and our visitors. To that end, the City has been working with the District Attorney General’s office for more than 2 years to address serious criminal activities at the Suburban LaVilla Inn. We have gathered law enforcement call data (Tusculum Police Department, Greene County Sheriffs Department, and Third Judicial District Drug Task Force), EMS responses, and other information pertaining to the activities at the Inn to prove that it constituted a public nuisance. Based on that information, the District Attorney’s office issued an abatement order on May 30, 2024, that allowed the City to clear the building of occupants and to secure the building and close the business, which we accomplished that same day.
At the first Circuit Court hearing on the abatement on June 5, 2024, the District Attorney’s office and the owner’s attorney asked the court for additional time to evaluate the situation, and the Court approved an Agreed Order continuing the closure of the property but allowing the owner supervised access to the property to evaluate the listed issues until the next hearing, June 17, 2024. The owner acknowledged in court on Monday, through his attorney, that he did not dispute the finding that the property was a public nuisance and that the alleged activities had in fact been occurring. The Court is to provide an amended Agreed Order soon to address further remediation of the nuisance. Therefore, the City has not had an opportunity to testify before the court or publicly disclose the activities that led to our request for the abatement – but we feel that our citizens have a right to understand the process.
The current owner, who resides in Washington County, purchased the property in 2018 and has had various managers operate the Inn. Over the past decade or more (during ownership by both the current and previous owner), the Inn has become an active location for criminal activity. Over that period thousands of complaints and hundreds of arrests have been made by law enforcement regarding criminal activities related to the Inn. Investigations and arrests have been made for illicit drug sales, possession and use, possession of stolen vehicles, prostitution, domestic violence, rape, assault, child sex trafficking, possession of firearms by felons, active arrest warrants – to mention a few. At least one of these charges was placed against the manager of the Inn. There have also been numerous EMS calls for drug overdoses, and at least one drug overdose death.
Nearby residents and business owners are unable to enjoy their property in peace and safety. Adjacent business and property owners attended the court hearing today but did not have an opportunity to express their experiences to the Court, including observing drug use and finding drug paraphernalia on their properties on a regular basis. Former long-term residents of the Inn also attended to express their experiences, including their children picking up baggies of illicit drugs on the sidewalk outside their room, but they also did not have an opportunity to do so. With the new Tennessee College of Applied Technology, the new state Department of Intellectual and Development Disability, and the new Greene County Health Department to be built just across the highway from the property, we need to make sure that they have a safe environment free from unlawful activity as well. Chuckey-Doak Middle School and High School are just a few hundred yards away as well.
A second priority of the City is to ensure that the Inn is a safe place for guests to stay. During the abatement process, the City’s Codes Enforcement Officer/Building Inspector toured the buildings on the site and discovered multiple building codes violations as well as multiple fire and life safety violations. Examples of those violations include: only 4 working smoke detectors out of 26 rooms; cooking appliances located in a sleeping space; damaged room doors that could not be locked securely; no handicap access to rooms or office; exposed wiring and non-functioning outlets; exposed fan blades in some room HVAC units; multiple non-functioning sinks and showers; general filth; roach and other pest infestation; electrical control boxes blocked by debris; holes in walls and ceilings; and many others.
The Circuit Court and the District Attorney’s Office are responsible for dealing with the criminal activity in such a way that the Inn will no longer be a public nuisance, and the City trusts that they will do so. The City will continue to pursue the resolution of the building codes issues, and it is the City’s position that those violations must be completely addressed before any consideration of reopening the Inn.
