WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) — A local law firm is suing several major hotels because one of their clients was a victim of child sex trafficking.
The Travis Walker law firm has filed a 152-page lawsuit detailing a young girl’s traumatic nightmare involving sex trafficking and accusing well-known hotels such as Wyndham and Holiday Inn and Suites of facilitating and aiding child sex trafficking.
The lawyers claim that the website Backpage, the software company Salesforce and hotels used to traffic a 16-year-old Florida girl were complicit in the crimes.
In 2017, teenage “Jane Doe” was trafficked for sex by her drug-addicted mother and used hotels near Chiefland, Florida to meet with “clients.”
A total of eight men were arrested and charged with sex crimes against minors, including a man from Delray Beach.
The girl’s lawyers argue that hotels are in a “unique position” to detect and prevent sex trafficking.
Becky Dymond of Lighthouse Palm Beach County agrees.
“If there is a pattern, if they can see a pattern that it was this girl who came to the same hotel with five different men, then yes, absolutely,” Dymond said.
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Dymond and his lawyers pointed out that hotels have training, policies and protocols in place in the event of suspected human trafficking, including examples of what to look for.
In a statement to CBS12 News, IHG Hotels & Resorts explains that hotel staff are required to attend anti-human trafficking training annually and that the company has several partnerships with nonprofit organizations to raise awareness of human trafficking in hotel communities.
Dymond says training without action could cost someone their life.
“Ultimately, most cases of human trafficking are reported because someone notices something strange. They see something and think, ‘That’s not right,'” Dymond said.
The plaintiff in this case is suing each defendant for $75,000.
Jane Doe’s lawyers say she suffers from severe mental health problems and several health issues related to human trafficking.
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