A 59-year-old man from Summerville, South Carolina, wanted on sex-crime allegations, was arrested around midnight Sept. 25 at the Crowne Plaza Cleveland Airport, 7230 Engle Road in Middleburg Heights, according to cleveland.com. Police said he came out of his first-floor room and surrendered without a struggle.
A Lookout Report Leads Police to a Parking Lot
Police began looking for a Jeep Cherokee with South Carolina plates after a regional alert said it was traveling through Northeast Ohio, according to Cleveland.com. License-plate-reader cameras detected the vehicle near Engle and Bagley roads. Officers later found it in the Crowne Plaza’s parking lot.
Rules for License-Plate-Reader Footage
The Flock agreement attached to a Middleburg Heights ordinance describes the service’s purposes as crime awareness, prevention and prosecution, bona fide police investigations, and evidence archiving. It says footage is automatically deleted after 30 days, giving the agency that period to view, save or transmit it to a relevant government agency.
The man was wanted in Lorain County on an allegation of unlawful sexual contact with a minor, according to Cleveland.com. He was also wanted in St. Clarksville, where police were preparing several arrest warrants against him over a sexual assault allegation.
Hotel Staff Point Officers to the Right Room
After officers located the Jeep, hotel staff told them the man was staying in a first-floor room, the report said. Police assembled an arrest team and ordered him to come out with his hands visible, according to Cleveland.com.
The man complied and did not resist, the report said. He was then turned over to Lorain County sheriff’s deputies. The account does not identify which local police agency made the arrest or the officers involved.
What the Reporting Leaves Unclear
This is not the first time the Crowne Plaza Cleveland Airport has turned up in a wanted-person case. Per a report from cleveland.com, a separate report from September 2025 described another wanted man being arrested at the same hotel, that time in connection with a handgun, though the available evidence does not establish any broader pattern tying the two incidents together.
The report, by special-to-Cleveland.com reporter Bob Sandrick, does not identify the man or say whether he has been convicted of an offense in either jurisdiction. It also provides no court records or warrant details for the Lorain County or St. Clarksville matters, so their current status is not established here.
