How Did Major Hotel Chains Allegedly Enable Years of Child Sex Trafficking?
A survivor of child sex trafficking filed a lawsuit on February 5, 2025, against Motel 6, Wyndham Hotels, and Red Roof Inn, detailing years of abuse at eight different hotel locations. The plaintiff, identified only as Jane AB Doe to protect her privacy, describes being trafficked and raped approximately 1,000 times while hotel employees allegedly not only knew about the abuse but sometimes facilitated or participated in it. Filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, the lawsuit reveals the victim was just 13 years old when she fled child protective services in Dallas and was coerced into trafficking. Her attorneys are seeking damages under the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act for abuse that occurred between 2012 and 2014 at properties across California and Texas.
5 Key Points
- Jane AB Doe was only 13 when her ordeal began after fleeing child protective services and being targeted by a trafficker.
- The lawsuit details horrific abuse across eight hotels under three major chains where staff allegedly enabled and sometimes participated in the trafficking.
- Court documents describe how hotel employees would direct the victim and traffickers to use specific entrances to avoid detection.
- The plaintiff was reportedly confined to hotel rooms, beaten in public areas, and forced to meet daily quotas of customers.
- This case joins hundreds of similar lawsuits nationally as survivors seek accountability from hotel chains for alleged complicity in trafficking.
How Was This Child Lured Into Sex Trafficking After Fleeing Protective Services?
Behind the legal terminology of this lawsuit lies the harrowing journey of a vulnerable 13-year-old girl. According to court documents, after fleeing child protective services in Dallas, she encountered another girl and her boyfriend on a train. What might have seemed like a chance meeting quickly turned into a nightmare when the boyfriend sexually assaulted her at gunpoint and declared that he “owned her.” The lawsuit painfully recounts how the next day, “her trafficker gives her clothes and heels,” and within just 24 hours, forced her into commercial sexual exploitation. The young girl found herself trapped in a cycle of abuse, unable to leave hotel rooms and required to meet daily quotas of customers to satisfy her trafficker. Court filings describe how “her trafficker would beat, yell, and torment Doe often and loudly in the public common areas of the hotels,” yet hotel staff allegedly did nothing to intervene despite clear signs of abuse and the girl’s obvious young age.
Which Hotels Are Named in This Trafficking Survivor’s Lawsuit?
The trafficking occurred across eight different hotel properties spanning two states. In California, the lawsuit identifies a Motel 6 in Westlake, Los Angeles—characterized as a “fortress-like structure with a two-star rating”—and a two-story Motel 6 in Gardena. The Texas locations include Motel 6 properties in Dallas and Austin, a Studio 6 in Dallas, and a Red Roof Inn in Houston. Additional sites named are a Days Inn by Wyndham and a Super 8 by Wyndham, though their specific locations weren’t detailed. According to court documents, these locations weren’t random choices but rather properties where the trafficker maintained established relationships with staff. The lawsuit describes a systematic operational pattern where the trafficker would make “specific room requests so as to find convenient entrances for buyers.” The victim was allegedly confined to these hotel rooms for extended periods, her freedom entirely restricted, while being forced to endure repeated sexual assaults in environments where she should have found protection.
What Evidence Shows Hotel Staff Allegedly Facilitated Child Exploitation?
The most disturbing allegations in the lawsuit describe direct participation by hotel employees. Court documents claim “often, hotel employees would not only witness Jane AB Doe being trafficked, but they would actively help her trafficker perpetrate the crime, and on some occasions, would even watch Jane AB Doe as she was being raped or participate in the rape themselves.” In one specific incident detailed in the lawsuit, a hotel maid approached the victim’s room and told her she had been “warned by the front desk not to service that room,” indicating knowledge and coordination among staff members. The lawsuit alleges employees consistently overlooked apparent signs that should have prompted intervention, including “visible bruising, malnourishment, being in a drugged state, and clothing inappropriate for the weather or general public.” These allegations represent some of the most serious claims of corporate negligence in human trafficking cases, suggesting not just passive enablement but active participation in the exploitation of a minor.
Why Are Hotels Becoming Ground Zero for America’s Sex Trafficking Crisis?
The lawsuit against these major hotel chains highlights a pervasive national problem. Homeland Security Investigations have identified hotels as primary venues for human trafficking operations across the United States. According to data from the Polaris Project, a leading anti-trafficking organization, nearly 9,000 trafficking victims reported hotels as the sites of their exploitation. An investigation by the Independent newspaper found 117 Red Roof Inn locations named in trafficking lawsuits across 40 states, underscoring the widespread nature of this crisis. Hotels provide ideal conditions for traffickers: temporary accommodations with privacy, minimal questioning of guests, and 24-hour access. The plaintiff’s attorneys argue this case exemplifies how major chains have created environments where trafficking can flourish, stating defendants “financially benefited from the sex trafficking of Jane AB Doe and other victims like her and developed and maintained business models that attract and foster the commercial sex market for traffickers.” This case joins a growing trend of legal action seeking to hold corporations accountable for enabling human trafficking on their properties.
How Is This Case Part of a Larger Legal Movement Against Corporate Enablers?
Jane AB Doe’s lawsuit represents a growing movement of survivors using expanded legal avenues to seek justice. The federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act was amended in 2008 to allow survivors to sue entities that benefit from enterprises they know or should have known were enabling trafficking. This legal pathway has empowered victims to hold corporations accountable beyond just targeting individual perpetrators. Attorneys Nicholas Dagher, Robert Simon, and Brad Simon represent the plaintiff, seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. Their legal strategy focuses on establishing that these hotel chains knew or should have known about trafficking activities on their properties yet continued to profit from them. The lawsuit states that despite the hotel industry’s awareness programs, like the American Hotel and Lodging Association’s “No Room for Trafficking” campaign, the chains’ “failure to investigate and monitor human trafficking” demonstrates negligence and complicity. For Jane AB Doe and hundreds of other survivors filing similar lawsuits, these legal actions represent not just a path to personal justice but a means to force systemic changes in how major corporations respond to trafficking.
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