The owner of the Douglas Inn said Tuesday his Roseburg motel has been unfairly characterized as contributing to downtown crime.

Owner Amrik Rai said the motel in the 500 block of Southeast Stephens Street in Roseburg is as much a victim of illegal behavior by transients as any other business.

“The people staying with me, they don't make any problems,” Rai said.

Roseburg police say the motel has become well known to them. A confrontation that began in the Douglas Inn parking lot Saturday resulted in the death of Jonathan Scott King, 31. While going door-to-door investigating the incident, Roseburg police arrested two men in separate rooms on suspicion of drug crimes. Meanwhile, a man accused of stabbing another man in the inn's parking lot last year went on trial Tuesday for attempted murder.

“I don't think it's at all unfair to say there's been a significant number of arrests at that location,” Roseburg police Sgt. Aaron Dunbar said.

Rai said Saturday's incident took place on the sidewalk, not at the motel itself.

He said the victim, Jonathan Scott King, 31, was not staying at the motel and neither were the two men later arrested on suspicion of possession of methamphetamine and marijuana.

Police say a Douglas Inn resident, Michael Keith Oglesby, 36, punched King during a dispute near the motel at 9 p.m. Saturday. King died Sunday around 2 p.m. at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Springfield.

Dunbar confirmed the assault took place on the sidewalk on Oak Avenue, but shortly beforehand, a group of people, including King, had been standing in the Douglas Inn driveway. The group moved a few feet to the sidewalk just before the assault, Dunbar said.

Police are continuing to investigate and no arrests have been made.

Rai confirmed that Oglesby is a resident of the motel, which offers long-term and month-by-month rentals.

Although Rai said a 42-year-old man cited and released that evening on suspicion of possessing marijuana was not a guest, the man listed his address as the Douglas Inn.

A 52-year-old man listed by police as a transient was found hiding in the shower of a room at the motel and arrested on suspicion of possession of methamphetamine and less than an ounce of marijuana.

Dunbar said he is optimistic that a meeting scheduled for today between police and downtown business people, including Rai, will open lines of communication to address problems caused by transients.

“We want to be able to work with everybody, not against people,” he said.

Rai and the motel's manager, Michelle Sullivan, said many homeless people congregate nearby and frequently trespass on the motel's property.

“These people are not allowed on the property,” Sullivan said. “We're trying to kick 'em out because they've been eighty-sixed on this property.”

Today, shortly before 3 a.m., police arrested and took to jail a 35-year-old man after the motel phoned in a complaint about an intoxicated man in a room. The motel also called police Tuesday morning to complain that too many people were in Oglesby's room. An officer responded but made no arrests.

Sullivan said motel employees have trouble removing transients from the premises because as soon as they stop looking, the transients come back.

“They just run into the rooms and hide in the bedrooms,” she said. “They're not our tenants.”

Dunbar said motel and apartment owners are in a difficult position when it comes to barring unwanted visitors. Renters have the right to have guests, he said.

Visitors unwanted by management can only be considered trespassers if they are in common areas like parking lots, Dunbar said.

Sullivan and Rai said that some of their residents invite transients into rooms. They said they have curfews and go door-to-door between 9:30 and 10 p.m. to kick out any non-residents.

Rai said that in the three years he's been here he's seen an increase in the homeless population.

Rai and Sullivan said they believe police should take stronger action to arrest trespassers. Rai said he wants to see criminals put in jail and housing for the rest of the homeless people loitering around his motel.

He said he rents rooms out month-to-month because he's too far from the freeway to make a living on single-night rentals.

Sullivan said she thinks a plan by police to ask merchants to stop selling cheap and large cans of high-alcohol beer in the neighborhood is a good idea.

The owner of the Oak Market convenience store across the street from the Douglas Inn declined to comment.

Dunbar said no date has been set to ask downtown markets to stop selling the high-alcohol beer, which police say is popular with transients. A similar effort to reduce illegal activity in Charles Gardiner Park in Roseburg proved successful last spring, he said.

At least one business, Albertsons, agreed to stop selling cheap high-alcohol beer, while other stores were more cautious about their sales, Dunbar said.

Increased patrols and a park cleanup spearheaded by Umpqua Partners for a Drug Free Future also helped substantially reduce problems at the park, he said.

Dunbar said he believes stepped up patrols downtown, which began two weeks ago, already have reduced illegal behavior such as littering, urinating in public and camping illegally.

• You can reach reporter Carisa Cegavske at 541-957-4213 or ccegavske@nrtoday.com.