On Wednesday, December 18th, the OK Motel…a fixture of Sapulpa’s West Dewey Avenue and Historic Route 66 for several decades, was finally laid to rest, the result of a court decision in November.
Related: See the conditions of the OK Motel prior that caused it to fail inspection.
The motel has had a soured reputation for a long time, as evidenced by Sapulpa Police Chief Mike Haefner’s testimony at the November hearing. Haefner released a comprehensive comparison of Sapulpa’s OK Motel with 12 units, and the nearby Super 8 Motel with its 58 rooms, over the course of 15 years, from 2004 to 2019. According to Haefner, in this time frame, the OK Motel had 461 police calls while the Super 8 had 130.
Related: read the full account of Chief Haefner’s testimony.
OK Motel owner Muhammed Z. Khurshid said most of the calls were from his motel tenants who were selling or using drugs, and when he told them to stop, they would call the police to complain about him. Later in the proceedings, Khurshid admitted that he allowed drug use on his property to stop the complaints to the police.
Khurshid was forced to move out of the manager’s office after the hearing and had two weeks to vacate the premises. His whereabouts are unknown as of now.
Lottie Wilds Contributed to this story.
