Longmont hotel facing $4 million in damages after giving room key to man who attacked guests

LONGMONT, Colo. — A mom and her daughter will get more than $4 million in damages after they were attacked while staying at an EconoLodge in Longmont in 2023, a Weld County jury decided last week.

The two women filed a lawsuit against the hotel and its parent company, Choice Hotels.

According to the lawsuit, the women invited the daughter's now ex-boyfriend, Cody Czichos, to their hotel room for dinner. They then told him to leave after they said he was "acting irrationally and unpredictably.”

Czichos did, but then returned to the front desk, where an employee gave him a key to the women’s room without their permission. Czichos provided only the room number and the last name on the reservation.

After receiving the room key, Czichos went on stab the daughter and assault her mother.

Matthew Haltzman, attorney for the victims, said Czichos was also visibly intoxicated and writing threatening notes targeting the women before he asked the front desk for the room key.

Haltzman also said the two women were left with both physical injuries and post traumatic stress disorder. He said they feel “some level of vindication” after the multi-million dollar verdict.

He went on to call the hotel’s policies “dangerous.”

“This seemed like an outlier to me,” Haltzman told Denver7 Sunday. “This hotel was engaging in a policy that said name plus room number equals key. I've never seen that at a hotel before, and if it didn't happen to my clients, then it would have happened to somebody else at some point at this particular hotel."

Denver7 reached out to the hotel about their room key policy and if any changes have been made since the incident. They declined to comment.

Last year, Czichos pleaded guilty to attempted murder, assault and trespassing. He is serving 15 years in prison.

See the original article here: https://www.denver7.com/news/front-range/longmont/longmont-hotel-facing-4-million-in-damages-after-giving-room-key-to-man-who-attacked-guests