COLUMBUS – Columbus city officials are headed to court, hoping to shut down a West Side apartment complex they say is a “one-stop shop” for drugs.
Acting on complaints from the community, police conducted four undercover operations at the apartment buildings at 596-602 S. Hague Avenue (see map) between June 14 and 26, though they have continued to receive complaints, according to City Attorney Richard C. Pfeiffer, Jr.
A hearing for preliminary injunction against the owners of the complex, Glenn and Patricia Thompson, is scheduled for Monday in the Franklin County Environmental Court.
“We’re hoping that our nuisance abatement efforts will send a strong message that Columbus won’t tolerate rampant criminal activity operating out of apartment complexes,” said Assistant City Attorney Kristen Dickerson, a zone initiative attorney in Pfeiffer’s office. “We would prefer that the owners work with the city to clean up their properties voluntarily, but when they don’t we are ready to take action.”
An injunction would allow the city to evacuate and board up some or all of the property and, if the buildings are declared to be a public nuisance, state law grants the court the authority to order the apartments closed for up to one year, Pfeiffer said.
Following a complaint on June 2, undercover narcotics detectives bought crack-cocaine and heroin from 598 S. Hague Ave. on June 14 and June 16. Police executing a subsequent search warrant found the opiate substitutes suboxone and Narcan, used for the emergency treatment of opioid overdoses, as well as marijuana, heroin, crack cocaine, a .40 caliber semi-automatic handgun reported stolen from Delaware and ammunition.
On June 22 and 26, detectives bought crack cocaine at the premises took place and another search warrant was executed on June 29, when authorities found suboxone and Lidocaine, an anesthetic known to be used to dilute heroin, along with heroin, crack cocaine, powdered cocaine, marijuana, pills and a syringe with blood on it. Police also found another handgun, ammunition and cash.
Detectives met with the Thompsons, who signed a letter acknowledging that nuisance drug activity was occurring at the property.
Dickerson is trying to prove that the Thompsons are guilty of maintaining a nuisance by establishing that they, as owners of the premises, “knew of, participated in, or acquiesced to the activity which constituted the nuisance,” which is a violation of state law.