MINNEAPOLIS — A Minnesota woman who says she was a victim of sex trafficking as a teen has filed suit against the operators of a Twin Cities hotel for allegedly not only turning a blind eye to the illegal activity but giving her captors extra accommodations to do their business.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, seeks unnamed actual, compensatory, and punitive damages from what it calls "The Wyndham Brand Defendants" - a group of corporate entities that operated the Super 8 Hotel at 6445 James Circle N. in Brooklyn Center back in 2013 when the plaintiff was 15 years old.
Now 26 years old, the plaintiff alleges that she was ensnared by sex traffickers who tricked her into believing they planned to take care of her but instead kidnapped her, posted advertisements online, and forced her to have commercial sex for their financial benefit. Under the constant threat of violence, she found herself forced to do "increasingly depraved things, in increasingly depraved locations, such as the Brooklyn Center Super 8," the lawsuit alleges.
In court documents, the unnamed plaintiff - named in court documents only as T.S. - says between August and December of 2013 she was unlawfully and repeatedly trafficked at the Brooklyn Center Super 8. The lawsuit maintains that staffers knew T.S. was a minor under the age of 18 and was being prostituted inside a room that The Wyndham Defendants were profiting from, but did nothing to stop it.
"Upon arrival and throughout her trafficking at the subject Super 8 Hotel, the “red flags” of the sex trafficking venture were apparent to the point where Defendants’ managers admitted that they suspected commercial sex with a child under 18 was occurring and had occurred in Room 262, the room in which the Plaintiff was located," the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit adds that based on Wyndham policy or protocol, Super 8 managers and staff were required to report the obvious signs T.S. was being sex trafficked to corporate officials and law enforcement but failed to do so. In fact, the plaintiff alleges, staff at the hotel actually helped the traffickers by continuing to rent them rooms without requiring legal ID, accepting cash payments instead of traceable credit cards, and even providing extra towels to clean up evidence of illicit sexual activities.
A federal law known as the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act allows victims to sue entities that financially benefit from participating in a venture they know or should know engages in criminal sex trafficking.
In a submitted response the Wyndham Defendants deny the allegations, and say they lack knowledge or information "to form a belief as to the truth of the allegation that Plaintiff was a victim of sex trafficking."
