Denver officials already had the Western Motor Inn on their radar when Yong Cha Prince invited hundreds of recently arrived immigrants into her motel late last year.
As her rooms filled with people who might otherwise sleep out in the cold, city workers also made appearances at her property off Vasquez Boulevard, often posting violation notices to her door. Those notices led to Prince being fined thousands of dollars.
While her rooms were better options for her guests than tents on sidewalks, they didn't all have locking doors, working toilets and sinks, or carpets. She bolted shut an entire section of her building, too, after it fell into extreme disrepair.
Prince made international news after her motel became an accidental shelter. As she gave interviews to the likes of CNN and La Monde, who hailed her hospitality, legal proceedings over six code-violation charges quietly moved forward.
In January, attorney Charles Elliott asked a Denver County judge for an extension on those cases, saying a long-pending sale of the property would be finished by the time they returned to court on March 8, which he argued would make her charges moot.
Though most people who were living at the Western moved out in February, Prince did not conclude the deal before her next hearing. On Friday, she appeared before judge Chelsea Malone to take a plea deal Elliott had worked out with Denver's City Attorney's Office.
Prince agreed to fines and probation.
She pled guilty to four of the six charges, for violating fire codes, violating housing codes and operating an "unsafe and unsanitary dwelling." As per her agreement with the City Attorney, she was sentenced to two years of unsupervised probation and fined $50,000, though she only had to pay $5,000 on Friday. She's off the hook for the rest as long as she makes it through her probation period without any more violations.
Prince also agreed to pursue a "no trespass" agreement with the Denver Police Department, which will allow them to keep people off the property, and to not operate an unlicensed motel in the city ever again.
"You are not to operate a motel in the city and county of Denver before obtaining necessary licensure and passing all occupancy requirements and inspections," Malone said from the bench.
"I agree, and I want to retire," Prince responded.
When it was over, Prince headed downstairs to pay her fine. She told us she was going to look at a home she might buy, somewhere she might land once she finally leaves her old inn.
Elliott said he will try to get her probationary period dropped once the place sells. Jason Kramer, the City Attorney presiding over this case, told the judge he would be open to continuing that conversation. He wished Prince good luck as they left the courtroom.
For now, Elliot said he's happy with how things turned out. The city's first offer was a much scarier proposition.
"The initial offer had jail hanging over her head, 270 days, so this is a good way," he said, turning to Prince. "You'll sell. You'll move on."
"Yeah, get on with my life," she replied.
