The Grandview Hotel is going to close any moment. The latch ditch effort to get another day in court failed.
I watched. It was painful. Horribly, terribly, painful. Think root canal. Peoria City Attorney, Randy Ray, was his pathetic self. I would have been concerned, but an even more pathetic attorney represented the Grandview Hotel residents. Judge Barra was stuck. It was obvious that Barra didn't want to evict the hotel guests, but simply put, THEY HAD NO CASE. As an act of charity, Barra gave them another fourteen days to file, but could not find any valid cause to stay his order closing the hotel. Barra stated the residents case didn't come close to showing any property rights, let alone a violation of due process.
IMHO: The sad excuse for a lawyer representing the hotel guests led his clients down a path he knew he was going to lose, he didn't even put forth much of an effort. (The guy didn't seem prepared, let alone capable of passing the bar exam.) Barra even tried to help him out by attempting to clue him on the very basics of law. I'm telling you. It hurt to watch.
I wonder if this whole drama would have concluded differently if either side had semi decent legal representation. If The City had been more legally aggressive, the hotel would have been shut down sooner. If Ingersoll, Jain, or the hotel residents had been able to exploit The City's inadequate legal representation with a half way decent lawyer of their own, they could have probably kept this in Court for years.
So, it's all over. The only thing left to do is wait for the Red Cross van to show up and watch for the next sad stunt Chase will try. Chain himself to the doors perhaps? Declare all hotel residents live in employees? Declare the purchase invalid and turn the property back over to Jain? Whatever comes next, you can count on it to be feeble, transparent and useless.
It ain't over until the disbarred attorney sings.
