Motel Owners Say Vice Sting on Sepulveda Was Dishonest

Employees of four motels along Sepulveda Boulevard in Sherman Oaks, Van Nuys and Sepulveda were cited for renting rooms to prostitutes in an undercover sting operation that owners and managers characterized Thursday as unfair and dishonest.

Los Angeles vice officers said they specifically told motel clerks that they were renting rooms to use with prostitutes, but some motel owners said their employees do not understand English well enough to know what the officers meant. Others said the officers said they were with “a girlfriend.”

“This is not the kind of motel that wants hookers,” said Norm Goodfriend, an attorney for Starlite Motel, which was cited during Wednesday’s six-hour operation. “I think they hit the wrong place.”

Goodfriend said undercover police officers did not explain to the desk clerk why they wanted the room, never mentioning that it was to be used for prostitution. “If they had looked the least bit shaky, we would have thrown them out,” he said.

But police said every person cited thought that he was renting to a prostitute and her client. “We made very sure before we cited anybody that they understood why we wanted the room,” said one officer who requested anonymity.

The six-officer sweep was not intended to harass motel owners, most of whom are trying to rid their businesses of prostitutes, said Lt. Faryl Fletcher of the Van Nuys Division vice unit. It was, rather, to encourage them to be more vigilant in watching for prostitutes and turning them away, he said.

“We’re not saying any of these establishments cater to prostitutes,” he said, adding that the motels were chosen at random. “This is just another tool that we utilize. No business person likes to be cited for a violation of law, no matter how minor. They will not allow this to happen again.”

Officers involved in the operation said they explained to motel clerks that they wanted to rent a room to spend time with a prostitute. Twelve motels were targeted--nine along Sepulveda Boulevard and three in the northwest San Fernando Valley. Eight refused to rent rooms to the officers.

Prodded by Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs, motels along Sepulveda formed Motel Owners Watch last year to work together to rid the boulevard of prostitutes and drug dealers. Owners and managers have met several times with police to discuss strategies for recognizing prostitutes and form committees to supervise themselves, said Mark Freed, Wachs’ field deputy.

That five motels along the boulevard turned the officers away shows the program is working, Freed said. But among the motels cited was Valley House Motel, which was praised Thursday by Freed for recently cleaning up its property and cracking down on illegal activity in its rooms.

Sales Manager Art Browning said more than $10,000 has been spent in the last six months on security fences and surveillance cameras to keep prostitutes and drug dealers out of the motel’s tidy courtyard. An additional $60,000 has been spent to remodel the motel’s 61 rooms and spruce up the building’s exterior, Browning said.

“We don’t have mirrors on the ceilings. We don’t have adult movies. We don’t have any of that,” Browning said, adding that the motel’s proximity to areas frequented by prostitutes makes it harder to clean up completely.

“We’re trying, man,” he said, but “we can’t beat the situation totally. What transpires between two people is usually considered their business. That’s the fine line a motel owner walks.”

Browning said the desk clerk who rented the room to police is a Chinese immigrant and did not understand that it was to be used for prostitution. Heesun Ho, manager of El Cortez Motel, which also was cited, said the clerk who was on duty is from Bangladesh and does not understand the subtleties of English.

But the officer who issued the citation at Valley House Motel disagreed, saying the clerk knew why he wanted the room. “I made it perfectly clear what the room was going to be used for,” he said. “I told the guy no less than four times.”

And about clerks who do not speak English, the officer said: “They converse very well with you until you tell them they’re under arrest. Then all of a sudden, they don’t speak English.”