The City of Houston has filed a lawsuit against The Lucky Evening Food Store in Houston's Braeburn neighborhood alleging the business' owner has allowed criminal activity on the premises to continue unabated.

The city of Houston is suing the owner of The Lucky Evening Food Store at 8900 S. Braeswood Boulevard in Houston's Braeburn neighborhood for allegedly tolerating crime taking place in the area. 

As reported by ABC 13's Mycah Hatfield, the city's common nuisance lawsuit states that the store has seen repeated incidents involving the delivery and possession of illegal substances, aggravated robbery and murder without redress. Lloyd Neal, the attorney representing the owner of the store, said the suit incorrectly posits that the business encourages and abets such behavior.

"They are being sued because they supposedly, knowingly tolerate crime at this property," Neal told Hatfield. "[The area] has gotten progressively worse in terms of crime over the last few decades, but these people are committed to the community."

Neal says his client does not disagree that crime in the area near The Lucky Evening Store has increased in recent years. This fact does not mean store owners are in favor or have encouraged such a change, Neal said.

"They don't want that element present," Neal told Hatfield. "They want the city to come in and provide the police protection that they pay taxes for and protect them."

Neal claims the owner of The Lucky Evening Store has installed surveillance cameras, burglar-proof window bars and signage around the shop warning loiterers against gathering near the building. He says the suit has confirmed his client's suspicions that calling the police will only be used by the city against business owners.

"You're like, 'wait a minute, we are calling the police and reporting the criminals,'" Neal told Hatfield. "And then [city officials] are using that stat to presume our guilt under the statute that we aren't stopping crime?" 

City Attorney Arturo Michel said the city considers the number of criminal complaints originating from a given business when considering filing common nuisance lawsuits.

"We rely on information from HPD and we rely on the body of case law that looks at what level of instances, and whether the owners have done anything to remediate." Michael told Hatfield. "It's not an exact objective determination. There is a lot of subjectivity that goes into it."

The city is seeking both a temporary and permanent injunction against the store forbidding it from allowing crime. Neal told ABC 13 that he and his client have filed a constitutional challenge against the state's common and public nuisance statutes that allow district attorneys, local governments and private individuals to sue business owners "who knowingly tolerate [criminal] activity."

"This is a very significant legal issue right now," Neal told Hatfield. "What it's done is being used to aggressively pursue innocent tax-paying businesses and shift to them the responsibility to stop crime."

Neal says that the city has the power to revoke store owners' certificate of occupancy or force landlords to terminate occupying businesses' leases. Violators of common nuisance injunctions in Texas can face up to $10,000 in fines and 30 days in jail, according to the state penal code. 

"If you shut down this convenience store, do you think you've stopped crime?" Neal asked Hatfield. "No, you've just moved it down the street." 

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Dan Carson is senior editor at Chron. He has previously worked at FOX Sports and Bleacher Report. He enjoys Formula 1, Indiana basketball and avoiding Galleria traffic.