Georgia Hotel To Pay $40M To Survivor Of Sex Trafficking

A Georgia hotel that housed a sex trafficking survivor who was sold over 200 times on its property is being ordered to pay the victim $40 million.

On July 25, the victim, identified only as J.G., was awarded $10 million in compensatory damages and $30 million in punitive damages by a federal jury, according to The Independent. The verdict, issued under a federal anti-trafficking law, targeted Northbrook Industries, Inc., the owner and operator of the United Inn & Suites in Decatur, where the abuse took place.

At just 16 years old, J.G. was trafficked more than 200 times over 40 days between 2018 and 2019, often in plain sight of hotel staff. The hotel is accused of disregarding obvious red flags, such as dozens of men coming and going from her room and a police alert identifying her as a missing minor.

“Punitive damages aren’t just a message to this hotel; punitive damages are a message and a statement to the hospitality industry,” said the survivor’s attorney, Patrick McDonough. “And what it says is, if you’re going to run one of these hotels, you need to do your due diligence. There’s a lot of great people that run great hotels and who do the right thing…it’s just there’s certain places out there that decide they’re going to put profits over people and in this case, over children.”

During the trial, J.G. recounted the physical abuse and the emotional and psychological trauma she endured. A DeKalb County vice detective testified that, at the time, the United Inn & Suites ranked among the county’s top five commercial sex trafficking hotspots. Despite this, the hotel allegedly neglected to train its staff or implement basic safety measures, something McDonough blasted the hotel for.

“You’ve got to train your staff that you don’t sell condoms to 16-year-olds when they come up to the front desk,” McDonough said. “You need to verify, does this look right, that there’s kids in this room by themselves and 20 men have gone in and out every 30 minutes.”

Attorneys for the hotel denied any wrongdoing and claimed the hotel employees weren’t aware that trafficking was taking place. J.G.’s lawsuit makes history as the first in the country to reach a jury verdict under the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA), which enables survivors to pursue civil damages not only from traffickers and buyers but also from third parties, like hotels, that knowingly benefit from trafficking.

“She was trafficked out of the United Inn & Suites off Memorial Drive in DeKalb County,” said Emma Hetherington, a clinical associate professor at the University of Georgia School of Law and director of the Wilbanks Child Endangerment and Sexual Exploitation Clinic. “The claims here under the TVPRA are essentially that the hotel knowingly benefited financially from being in business with the traffickers.”

The survivor also filed suit under Georgia’s negligence law, claiming the hotel failed to maintain a safe environment and ignored clear warning signs.