Ventura Motel at Prime Site Has Become Trouble Spot for Police : Crime: Johnson Drive inn has seen shootings, drugs and rowdy parties. About 400 calls have been logged. But things are improving.

Nearly a decade ago, Ventura’s elected leaders turned their attention to a new development seen as the future gateway to the city’s southern entrance--a polished complex of restaurants, shops and other businesses that would lure tourists headed up the coast.

The key to it all was to be a first-class hotel that would anchor the area and funnel weekend spenders to the city’s harbor, beaches and downtown area.

“We were very adamant about that,” said John McWherter, a former city councilman. “It was a very good piece of land and we wanted something really nice to go in there.”

But things have not quite worked out as planned.

The area along the Ventura Freeway at Johnson Drive boasts an eight-theater movie complex, a food court, a Toys-R-Us, a Carl’s Jr. and a gas station. But the larger, chain restaurants have not been built. And the hotel once seen as the anchor to the area has developed a reputation with police as a trouble spot.

Originally, the 151-room Motel 6 at 3075 Johnson Drive opened in 1988 as a Six Pence Inn, owned by the Santa Ana-based chain. But within a year, the Johnson Drive property and 45 other Six Pence Inns were sold to the Dallas-based Motel 6 chain.

Since July, 1991, Ventura police have logged more than 417 calls to the motel, records show. Lt. Pat Miller, a patrol watch commander for three years, said that number ranks the motel among the most troublesome addresses in the city.

Police reports show that incidents at Motel 6 have ranged from drug dealing and public drunkenness to robberies and assaults. The largest number of calls, authorities say, stem from unsupervised parties attended by local teen-agers and young adults.

“Somebody rents a room and all of a sudden you have 25 people in there having a party, and only one of them has to have a gun,” said Ventura County Deputy Dist. Atty. Matthew Hardy, who is prosecuting five suspects in the only homicide to occur at the motel.

Motel 6 officials acknowledge the property has had its share of problems. But they say the company has done all it can to make the atmosphere safe for guests. On the weekend, one or two security guards patrol the well-lit grounds, and each room is secured with deadbolts and security latches.

“We think we’ve got the most comprehensive security program of any hotel chain in our market,” said Gordon Stafford, an attorney for Motel 6.

Moreover, officials say the high number of calls in recent years is a sign that managers are trying to curb problems rather than condone them.

“You rent to somebody and you call the police to make peace. Is that a no-no? It seems to me they should encourage that,” said Marc Michaelson, a spokesman for the company.

Authorities, however, note that few other sites in Ventura have prompted so many police calls. And they say the motel has not done all it could in the past to discourage teen-agers from gathering in the parking lot.

“It’s not like the entire motel is filled with kids running rampant every Saturday night. That is not the case,” Miller said. “But then you can’t hide the fact that we’ve been out there 417 times in the last three years.

“I can’t think of another place in town that we’ve been as many times,” he said.

Among the most serious incidents listed in police records have been:

* A shooting May 29, 1992, in which an Oxnard man walked out of his second-floor room and fired several shots at two groups of teen-agers in the parking lot. One of them grabbed a semiautomatic handgun and fired back, while another launched a bottle rocket at the hotel, police reports say.

* The abduction of an 18-year-old woman from her room on Sept. 5, 1992, by a Los Angeles man who knew her. When another female guest heard the commotion and peeked out her door, police reports say, the man threatened to shoot the second woman.

* And the Dec. 18 fatal shooting of a 21-year-old shoe salesman from Whittier who was gunned down as he stood on a second-floor walkway. Authorities have charged several suspected gang members from Oxnard and Port Hueneme with the slaying.

The Johnson Drive motel was also the scene of a five-kilo drug bust in July, 1990, when federal agents arrested two Oxnard men and their alleged supplier from Los Angeles, records show. And it was at Motel 6 that Gaston Ortiz, 27, of Long Beach was arrested in April, 1991, on suspicion of kidnaping a 14-year-old Cabrillo Village girl for 24 hours, police said.

Frustrated by the recurrence of teen-age parties at the motel nearly every weekend, Ventura Police Officer Jon Castellanos wrote a memo to his supervisor in February, 1992. He described the problems and said motel managers had been unresponsive when he tried to discuss possible solutions with them.

“It is just a matter of time before two of these gangs rent a room on the same night, have an altercation, and (we) have a major incident on our hands,” Castellanos wrote.

Later that month, Miller met with local Motel 6 officials and discussed Castellanos’ concerns. He said he asked the manager to take steps to prevent the weekend problems.

“I don’t want to say they ignored it. Maybe they just didn’t communicate it to everybody,” Miller said. “But they continued to rent to local teen-agers and that was one of the major issues. They continued to do that and that draws the kids there.”

Motel 6 officials deny the criticism, saying they have always tried to work with Ventura police. They cite a companywide policy of not renting to anyone under 18, and a new policy at the Johnson Drive motel of not renting to any local residents.

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Of the total 417 calls to police, records show that 144 were “disturbances,” a generic term for offenses ranging from loud music to a fistfight to gang members brawling with knives and guns.

When violence at the motel has occurred, it has almost always been on the rear side facing Johnson Drive, out of sight of front desk clerks, police reports show.

Such was the case Sept. 10, 1993, when an argument between several Oxnard youths led to half a dozen shots being fired at 21-year-old Eddie Rojo and his girlfriend. The couple scrambled for cover beneath a car, then Rojo ran away, saying he feared for his life, according to police reports.

“I was afraid if I stayed there, they would have killed me,” he said. Rojo and his girlfriend said they went to the motel to hang out with some of her friends, despite its reputation as a “party place that gets busted all the time.”

On the night that 21-year-old Paul Martinez was fatally shot, investigators say, dozens of youths from Oxnard and Port Hueneme were drinking and mingling at the motel.

Police say the victim and the suspects were attending parties on different floors on the rear side of the motel. A close friend, Gerald Razo, said Martinez had arrived about 10:30 p.m. with Razo and Razo’s former Army buddies from Santa Paula.

The suspects--Shaun Bolo, 20, his brother, Willard, 23, and Stephen Hidalgo, 20--were part of a large group spilling out of Room 222, investigators said.

After a brief confrontation between Martinez and the suspects, the local youths apparently left, firing six to 15 shots from the parking lot as they wheeled out, according to prosecutor Hardy.

One of the shots ripped through Martinez’s arm and pierced his heart.

Hardy would not say what prompted the shooting. But given the volatile mixture of guns, gangs and alcohol, police say violence was almost inevitable.

“It was a caldron waiting to brew over,” said Sgt. Carl Handy, one of the first officers on the scene. “And it did.”

In addition to the three suspects charged with murder, two others--Naomi Honohan, 19, and Alfonso Serrato Cortez, 21--have been charged with being accessory to murder. All five are believed to have gang connections, police said.

Motel 6 officials say there was little they could have done to anticipate or prevent the shooting.

“Even if you had people in the parking lot that were spillover from the parties, you wouldn’t assume that violence was going to occur,” Stafford said.

In the two months since the killing, police say the 151-room motel has quieted down considerably. Motel employees are now quick to toss out juveniles loitering in rooms or parking lots. To prevent cruising, temporary barriers have been erected in the rear parking lot. IDs are required to rent a room. A sign above the front desk announces a policy of not renting to local residents.

“I haven’t heard of a call out there since the shooting,” said Handy, who leads the department’s gang unit. “I think they’ve solved it for the time being.”

As evidence of the motel’s commitment to keeping the peace, a dozen or so Ventura teen-agers found themselves promptly booted from Room 206 a few weeks ago when they arrived for a party.

They had filed into the room noisily, letting out whoops that echoed down an open-air corridor. Within 15 minutes, the manager was on the phone and a security guard stood outside the door.

After being asked to leave because there were too many people in the room, the teen-agers filed out of the room littered with beer cans and out to the parking lot, where they made plans to go elsewhere.

“This used to be a spot,” complained Jeni, a 17-year-old who declined to give her last name. “I figure it’s better to have people here in a motel room than at a house.”

Motel 6 officials say their attentiveness is part of an effort to improve security throughout the chain of 700 motels.

“The company just bends over backwards to work with local police departments everywhere, and we take very seriously what the local police departments suggest to us,” Michaelson said. “If they are that concerned, we respond. That’s company policy.”

Law enforcement officials say some of the motel’s problems are inevitable given the transient nature of its patrons. But they also say its location along the Ventura Freeway could play a part in attracting crime.

Fewer incidents are reported at a second Motel 6 in Ventura on Harbor Boulevard. And police in Simi Valley say they have only occasional, minor problems at a Motel 6 there.

Police speculate that the Motel 6 on Johnson Drive might be seen as a neutral location for rival gangs.

Ventura County Sheriff’s Sgt. Keith Lazz said juveniles gathering at low-budget motels is a common occurrence throughout the county. In Camarillo, a Motel 6 and a Good Nite Inn are the most popular party spots, although neither location has been the scene of serious problems, he said.

“It’s not just a thing that gangs do, it’s just kids in general,” Lazz said. “It’s kind of hard to fault the motels unless it happens every night and they’re not keeping a lid on it.”

A manager with the security company that guarded the Johnson Drive motel for four years acknowledged that the location had a high number of teen-age parties. But he said serious crimes were no more frequent there than at other motels.

“It was rather hectic,” said Larry Cane of All Valley Security. “A lot of people went through at a lot of parties.”

All Valley no longer provides security there because of the long commute from Lancaster, where the company’s employees live, he said. A different company is now providing security.

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Cane said Motel 6 officials were responsive to security concerns. When a guard spotted a party with teen-agers, motel clerks would tell the people to leave, then call police if the party-goers refused.

“It was a very good system they had,” Cane said.

Motel 6 officials say crime at the Johnson Drive property merely reflects the level of crime throughout the area. And while the chain says it will keep trying to improve safety, officials say there is only so much they can do to screen out troublemakers.

“We live in a free society,” said Michaelson, the company spokesman. “And if someone wants to come and rent a motel room, and he’s got money and and ID, I guess you rent it to them.”