Damaged smoke detectors and exposed wiring. Sinks and electric stove tops littered with clothes, peanut butter jars, cans and cereal boxes. A cluttered basement apartment with tiny cellar windows as the only means of escape in case of blocked stairs in an emergency.
“Anybody who is looking at this objectively has to say, these are unsafe living conditions,” Riverhead Supervisor Sean Walter said while showing dozens of photographs taken from last Friday’s police and code enforcement raid at the Wading River Motel.
He said the photos depict code violations at the motel, which the county has been using to house homeless people.
“We didn’t make these pictures up,” Mr. Walter continued from his Town Hall office, where he met with the media on Friday. “These are not doctored photos. This is the way [the motel] looked last week.”
The execution of a search warrant at the motel has sparked a political firestorm, with the county’s social services commissioner publicly accusing town government of civil rights violations and even bigotry, and the Route 25 motel owner threatening a lawsuit against the town — and the town justice who signed off on the warrant.
Mr. Walter shared the photos with the media Friday, a week after the raid, to combat the criticism.
He and town attorney Bob Kozakiewicz said the motel owner also overhauled the electrical and plumbing systems without acquiring the proper permits, and that the owner illegally converted a laundry room into living space since he bought the motel in January.
The town officials said they have no evidence to show kitchenettes ever existed in each of the motel’s 32 rooms, as they do now.
“The certificate of occupancy lists only two efficiencies” for two apartments in the motel’s office areas, Mr. Kozakiewicz said.
Motel owner Anthony Marino showed up at Town Hall to defend his record Friday after catching word of the press event.
After being hit with three minor violations Murray described as "groundless" in the latest inspection, on August 2, she is contesting the violations and is reaching out to the community to support her call for major reform of the way in which the city
In his piece, Mr. Blass alleged the raid was illegal because town code requires “there be reasonable cause to believe a violation has occurred, as well as an owner's refusal or failure to allow an inspection of their rental premises” in order for a

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The officers contacted the state fire marshal's office because of concerns for the safety of the residents, and Cumby began an investigation of possible violations. He went back to the motel Monday for an inspection and documented the violations,
The motel operator had been working with these same town code enforcement, fire marshal and attorney staff for months, and consented to every inspection they requested and performed. He had underwriters' certificates for every repair he made.