By Sharon Coolidge
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Cody Moore is escorted into Clermont County Common Pleas Court on Thursday. The Enquirer/MICHAEL SNYDER

BATAVIA - A Clermont County judge Thursday ordered a 19-year-old Indian Hill man to pay back more than $2 million in damage he caused to another's property - even if it takes years.

Common Pleas Court Judge Jerry McBride said Cody Moore, who was convicted of burning down an under-construction Milford hotel last year, must pay $2 million to the hotel's insurance company.

Moore was convicted in February of arson, vandalism and breaking and entering in a string of crimes last spring, which included the hotel fire. Moore's parents have paid several thousand dollars to other businesses that were vandalized.

"You caused the damage, you have to do everything you can to make it whole," McBride told the 19-year-oldduring sentencing Thursday.

Moore had offered to pay Acuity Mutual Insurance $60,000, but the company refused to settle and demanded repayment through the criminal court.

It's unlikely that Moore, who is serving a three-year prison sentence, will ever pay all of the $2,069,455.23. Once released from prison, Moore will be placed on five years' probation. During that time, Moore must work and forward a court-determined amount of his pay - which will be based on his salary - to the insurance company every month. When the probation ends, so do the payments.

The insurance company sued Moore this week for the $100,000 it paid to the hotel's owners for the actual loss of the building under construction.

The $2 million figure is what the hotel would have been worth operating, according to court records.

If a judge in the civil suit orders repayment, Moore could be required to repay the entire amount no matter how long it takes. Owners of the hotel plan to rebuild and are seeking another franchise.

"We hope to break ground this summer and open in the spring of 2005 as an extended-stay hotel," said Kate Patel, a partner in Napstak II, the company that was building the Hawthorne Suites.

Moore also faces a dozen charges of vandalism in Hamilton County that caused an estimated $38,000 in damage.

E-mail scoolidge@enquirer.com