OXNARD : Motel’s Last Tenant Has 5 Days to Move

A Ventura County Superior Court Judge decided Monday to give the last tenant of the Lemon Tree Motel in Oxnard five days to vacate the building so the city can demolish the structure Nov. 9.

Superior Court Judge Bruce Thompson approved an order forcing Theresa Melendi, a cook, to leave her room at the Lemon Tree within five days or face forcible eviction by sheriff’s deputies.

Peter M. Kuetzing an attorney for the city, said he asked Thompson for the order because Melendi has said several times that she would not leave the building.

Kuetzing said Melendi was notified in August that she had 90 days to leave the building.

The 25-year-old motel has been the center of controversy since the city acquired it in June through eminent domain proceedings.

The city contends that the motel is the center of drug deals and prostitution and plans to demolish the aging building to make way for a parking lot. However, Bertha Ochoa, the motel’s former owner, claims she has been the target of a conspiracy among city officials to throw her tenants into the streets.

Mecky Meyers, who was hired by the city to relocate the tenants, said Melendi has refused the city’s efforts to find her a new home. “She’s closed all the doors herself,” Meyers said. “The city tried through me in every way to reach the woman.”

However, Melendi said the city has refused to help her find a new home, and she insists that she was only told last week that she must leave the building.

Although Kuetzing said the city is set to demolish the building Nov. 9, Ochoa said she is trying to raise funds to hire a lawyer to appeal the city’s eminent domain order to a federal judge.