Former CNN Anchors Sue Motel 6
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Former CNN Anchor Lynne Russell and CNN Reporter Chuck de Caro are suing Motel 6 after de Caro was wounded in his room in a June 30 shootout with a robber at the Motel 6 in Albuquerque.
De Caro was shot twice in the stomach and in the leg. He killed the robber, and his wife held towels to his bleeding stomach as they waited for police and an ambulance.
De Caro, a former member of the 20th Special Forces Group Airborne division of the U.S. Army, had been a correspondent for CNN. His wife, Lynne Russell, had been a news anchor. They sued Motel 6 Operating L.P. and affiliates, the motel manager, a security company and one of its employees, on Tuesday in Bernalillo County Court.
The couple were driving to California with their dog and stopped in Albuquerque, where Russell had grown up, to see friends and stay overnight. The Motel 6 advertises itself as "safe, clean, and pet-friendly" - exactly what they wanted - the couple say.
But, Albuquerque police had been called to the motel at least 821 times to investigate "burglaries, auto-thefts, rapes, prostitution, petty theft, drugs, and other types of criminal and suspicious activity" in the previous six years.
"(A)t least 166" of these police calls to the motel came this year, they say, and the defendants had every reason to know the motel was not safe place, and that its unmonitored security cameras and security staff were insufficient.
On the night of the shooting, at 11:27 p.m., security cameras recorded suspect going to the hallway next to the motel room to wait for Lynne to return from her car. The security footage shows suspect playing with his cell phone while waiting for Lynne to return. Again, no one at Motel 6 was paying attention, including the security guard who was himself on his cell phone at this time."
The camera showed Lynne returning to her room at 11:28, and "If anyone had been monitoring the cameras, it would have been obvious that the gun-carrying Mr. Walton was stalking Lynne," the lawsuit states.
They seek lost income, and punitive damages for negligence, unfair trade, emotional distress and loss of consortium.
H/T Courthouse News
