After being called out to the Key Truck Stop more than 50 times in less a year, a Harris County police officer sought the help of assistant county attorney, Jorey Herrscher.
Herrscher dug up a 100 year-statute related to nuisance. He has been successfully suing the seamy businesses under the reborn statute since the beginning of 2013. Texas Civil Practice and Remedy Code, Chapter 125 on nuisances was last used almost a century ago.
Businesses are considered nuisances when they breed crime and the owners don’t seem to make enough effort to find the criminal activity and squash it. Basically a nuisance charge claims the owner is being willfully blind.
Seedy businesses such as illegal gambling rooms and prostitution fronts have been closed under the new/old law. Motels and apartment complexes have also been run out of business under the law.
Police have been called to the Key Truck Stop for criminal activity including everything from prostitution to credit card fraud. Herrcher’s suit enjoins the truck stop from criminal activity; this means that the owners’ must do everything in their power to prevent crime or risk being shut down for a year.
Herrscher has used the statute to pull the plug on over 50 nuisances since he began using it. The operators of the Key Truck Stop in Channelview, Texas don’t want to be next. The owners of what has been referred to as one of the worst truck stops in America are anxious to help change that perception without litigation.