Red Roof Inn settles landmark sex trafficking case mid-trial

A verdict would have been instructive for sex trafficking cases against hotels nationwide, Emma Hetherington, director of the Wilbanks Child Endangerment and Sexual Exploitation Clinic at the University of Georgia School of Law told the AJC.

“If (Red Roof) can be held liable, then that sends a major message to hotels that society will not tolerate their participation in these ventures and that they need to end it,” she said.

Hetherington said the case was significant as it targeted a hotel chain as opposed to franchisees. She said hotel giants around the country have typically hidden behind franchisees in sex trafficking cases, claiming the franchisees are the ones who have knowingly benefited from trafficking ventures on their properties.

Red Roof made it clear while fighting the case that it shouldn’t be held liable as the plaintiffs were at least equally as responsible for what happened to them, Hetherington said. She said a 2018 report based on a survey of sex trafficking survivors showed that about 60% of them said their trafficking occurred at hotels.

“It makes sense that it often happens in hotels,” she said. “Hotels in many ways have pretty significant power to help prevent and end it.”

Buckhead clinician Anique Whitmore, who has interviewed more than 1,500 sex trafficking victims, testified during the trial that sex trafficking moved from the streets into hotels with online solicitation. She said it’s a myth that trafficking is hidden.

“It’s as clear as day as homelessness,” she testified. “You will see the malnourished body (of a victim), the scantily-clad way in which they’re dressed, the lack of eye contact, the inability to have their own voice and speak without permission. You see men looking at their watches, waiting to go up to the hotel room. You see men adjusting their belt and their zipper. You see women opening the door half dressed. You see pimps in their cars receiving money. You see and smell drugs in the environment. You see intoxicated, high women and men. You see weaponry.”

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