FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Two hotels may be forced to pay monetary damages after two victims say the businesses either failed to notice sex trafficking on their premises or turned a blind eye to it.
Two separate civil lawsuits have been filed in Colorado’s U.S. District Court against a Motel 6 in Fort Collins, owned by D Fort Hotel, LLC, and a Days Inn by Wyndham in Colorado Springs, owned by Santos and Brother Inc.
The lawsuits were filed on behalf of anonymous sex trafficking victims by attorneys Kelly Hyman of Florida and Randolph Janis of New York.
“As a direct and proximate result of Defendant’s multiple failures to act, mandate, establish, execute anti-trafficking measures and modify their anti-trafficking efforts at its hotel property, Plaintiff was sex trafficked, sexually exploited, and victimized repeatedly…” the lawsuit against D Fort Hotel, LLC reads.
Hyman cites the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act in the lawsuits. The act allows sex trafficking victims to sue hotels if they can prove in court that owners failed to train staff on how to mitigate trafficking.
Victims can also claim hotels indirectly profited from sex trafficking by accepting payment for rooms.
“When you have these types of cases, it's important for the victims to have their day in court and have their voice be heard,” Hyman told 9NEWS Investigates in a Zoom interview.
9NEWS Investigates visited the lobby of the Motel 6 and attempted to speak with an owner by leaving messages and a copy of the lawsuit, but no response was received. 9NEWS also left messages for the hotel in Colorado Springs.
Jenelle Goodrich, the founder of the human trafficking victim advocacy group From Silenced to Saved, said hotels certainly should be aware of trafficking and are obligated to train their staff.
Goodrich couldn’t speak on the specifics in the lawsuits, but she shared her general perspective about human trafficking in the context of hotels and motels.
“I think if you’re not training your staff to know what's happening, that is negligent because a lot of human trafficking happens in hotels,” Goodrich said. “I think if you build a space where this is allowed, then it’s going to happen.”
Goodrich said her group has often responded to hotels that have blatantly turned a blind eye to the signs of trafficking.
“Most of the time, in my experience, it's usually a manager or a desk clerk that has an outside relationship with the pimp, and they’re allowing them to operate there and they’re getting a little bit of the proceeds,” Goodrich said.
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