LOS ANGELES - Today, as part of her sustained, multi pronged efforts to disrupt sex trafficking of minors on the Figueroa corridor in South LA, City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto announced that her office has filed a nuisance abatement lawsuit against the owner of the Sun Motel, an epicenter of violent and escalating criminal activity anchored by the Denver Lane Gangster Blood (“DLGB”) street gang. Located at 10914-10918 South Figueroa Street, since 2020, the approximately 10-room motel has been the site of at least seven shootings, over 30 arrests by LAPD, and the recovery of 14 guns, plus numerous investigations related to trafficking, sexual assaults, robberies, carjackings, sales of narcotics and murder.
Feldstein Soto’s lawsuit, which claims that the owners and operators of the Sun Motel have failed to implement reasonable operational and managerial practices to suppress crime, was brought pursuant to California’s Red Light Abatement Law, the Public Nuisance Law, and the Unfair Competition Law and seeks to enjoin, abate and prevent the nuisance. It is one component of the overarching Figueroa Human Trafficking Initiative she is helping to lead. This latest civil enforcement action follows the court-ordered one-year closure of the now-defunct New Gage Motel which her office secured in September after filing a similar lawsuit to abate the violent criminality it has harbored since 2017.
“For decades, the Figueroa corridor has been a volatile magnet for crime, including the sexual exploitation of minors, and the illegal activity of some of the businesses in the area has helped fuel it,” said Hydee Feldstein Soto, Los Angeles City Attorney. “This lawsuit is another step toward disrupting the ecosystem of violence and bringing safety back to this community.”
According to the complaint, the Sun Motel - owned by Bullhead City Inn Corporation since 2016 - is adjacent to a residential neighborhood in South Los Angeles and within 1,000 feet of both the Figueroa Street Elementary School and Holy Rock Baptist Church. Despite extensive efforts over the last four years by LAPD and the City Attorney’s Office to address escalating crime at the location, including meeting with motel representatives to bring them into compliance, it remains a de facto headquarters for a street gang and its associates and a hotspot for violence. People uninvolved in gang activity, including young children, also stay at the motel.
Since this past summer, the Sun Motel has been the site of numerous shootings, including one approximately four weeks ago in which LAPD officers observed drywall in one of the rooms nicked with bullet holes, leading them to recover 24 spent bullet casings on the property.
Feldstein Soto’s lawsuit, managed by her office’s Public Rights Branch, seeks to swiftly and completely halt the dangerous illegal nuisance activity.
Since 2023, Feldstein Soto has been helping to lead the Figueroa Human Trafficking Initiative, a significant collaboration aimed at disrupting human trafficking on South Figueroa Street, with Mayor Karen Bass, Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, LAPD, U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security Investigations.
The goals of this initiative include:
- Helping human trafficking victims, particularly children;
- Disrupting the johns and the demand along the “kiddie stroll;”
- Stopping the illegal activity in complicit motels and other crime magnets through the use of civil enforcement actions; and
- Holding predators and profiteers accountable.
Anyone with information related to child sex crimes or other trafficking is encouraged to call the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office at 310-477-6565 or report tips online at https://tips.fbi.gov.
Case #24STCV27099
The People of the State of California vs. Bullhead City Inn Corporation, a California corporation.
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Hydee Feldstein Soto is the 43rd Los Angeles City Attorney, elected in November 2022 and sworn into office in December 2022. Her team of nearly 1,000 legal professionals, including more than 500 attorneys, carries out legal work for the City of Los Angeles at her direction and under her supervision. She is the first female City Attorney in L.A. history.