San Diego City Attorney Mara W. Elliot said Friday that a San Diego motel that has long been a “hub for illegal activities” has agreed to stop allowing sex trafficking and other crimes on the property.
The Main Street Motel located at 3494 Main St., in Barrio Logan near Naval Base San Diego, is the subject of an enforcement action taken by the City Attorney’s Nuisance Abatement Unit.
The unit has been working with the motel owners and operators for more than eight months to reach a stipulated agreement, which was signed by a Superior Court judge this month.
A civil complaint filed by the City Attorney against the owner and operators of the motel details at least four years of law enforcement activity at the site. From January 2019 to February 2023, the San Diego Police Department responded to 229 calls for service in response to reports of sex trafficking, loitering, fights, and drug overdoses, and made about 32 arrests relating to sex work.
Police also received numerous complaints of women flagging down cars near the motel at all hours. Many times, the women, when contacted by police, had motel room keys in their possession.
“This lawsuit should restore tranquility in this neighborhood and provide relief to small businesses located near the motel,” City Attorney Mara W. Elliott said. “My office will always be a champion for our most vulnerable communities.”
“The San Diego Police Department is committed to holding human traffickers accountable and helping the survivors of this horrible crime,” said Lt. Jason Scott of the San Diego Police Department’s Vice Unit, which assisted the City Attorney’s Office in the case. “We are proud to be partners in abating this nuisance property.”
When police contacted one of the motel’s operators about the ongoing criminal activity in August 2021 and requested the nuisance be abated, he told officers that he had no control over the motel guests or visitors.
To settle the case, the motel owners agreed to implement 36 separate compliance measures as conditions for staying in business. The agreement requires that the motel owners terminate the current motel operator’s lease, hire uniformed security guards, install security cameras, and provide remote access to the cameras to the San Diego Police Department 24 hours a day, upon request.
The motel owners must also stop renting rooms by the hour, install a new electronic key card system that monitors guests’ entry and departure, require guests to check in with a photo ID, and post large signs visible from the street stating that trespassing, loitering, sex trafficking, drugs, and weapons are prohibited on the property.
All illegal activity will be reported to the police. If sex trafficking continues, the owners may be forced to close the motel for one year.
The motel owners and operators must also pay $25,000 to the San Diego Police Department to reimburse the City for investigative costs, and pay a combined $50,000 in civil penalties, with $325,000 in fines stayed pending compliance with the injunction and stipulated judgment terms. The injunction prohibits them from allowing prostitution, lewdness, or sex trafficking at the property, or maintaining a public nuisance.
The motel is located in an area that was recently the subject of a months-long sex trafficking sting operation involving the San Diego Police Department, and National City Police, the City Attorney and District Attorney’s offices, and other agencies.
In that operation, announced in late February, 48 people were arrested for sex trafficking, and eight minors who had been forced into sex work were rescued.
The motel’s owners – PPNC LLC and its Chief Executive Officer Niruben Pravinkumar Bhakta — were very cooperative during the investigation, and willingly took measures to address the public nuisance identified by police and the City Attorney’s Office. The now-former managers are prohibited from continuing to operate the motel.
Both the owners and operators were also required to make a $5,500 donation each to a nonprofit organization whose mission includes assisting victims of sex trafficking.
