Tucker hotel pays $6M to end child sex trafficking case

Pat McDonough, an attorney for the plaintiffs in both cases, said the evidence against Tucker Inn was strong and likely would have elicited a verdict of more than $40 million. He said the plaintiff in the case, who is now 25, ultimately wants to start a rescue organization to help other survivors of sex trafficking.

“She’s totally thrilled with the settlement,” McDonough said. “She’s got a 1-year-old and she thinks this is going to set her up to be able to raise her son. And on top of that, she thinks now she can get the help she really needs. It’s been hard for her to get the mental health treatment she felt like she needed while this was going on.”

In a statement, Tucker Inn said it denies any wrongdoing or liability in the case. The hotel said it is “pleased that the parties were able to reach an agreement and resolve this matter.”

McDonough, who has represented plaintiffs in about 100 sex trafficking cases against hotels, said he hopes the settlement with Tucker Inn and the verdict against United Inn & Suites sends a message to the hospitality industry.

“They really need to train their employees and do the right thing,” he said. “This isn’t just about money — it’s about change.”

United Inn & Suites is the first hotel in Georgia held responsible by jurors under a federal law that targets those who knowingly benefit from participation in a venture with sex traffickers. Other cases were settled before jurors could decide them, and some have been thrown out by a judge before trial.

Attorney Jonathan Tonge, who with McDonough represents plaintiffs in such cases, said he believes the verdict against United Inn & Suites is the first of its kind in the U.S.

McDonough said commercial sex crime was rampant at Tucker Inn when the plaintiff was trafficked there for about 11 days in September 2015, when she was 15. At that time, the hotel operated as Super 8 by Wyndham, case records show.

McDonough said the plaintiff was forced to have sex with more than 100 men before she was rescued from the hotel during an undercover sting by DeKalb police, who prosecuted her trafficker and one of the buyers.

“She believes that rescue saved her life, quite frankly,” McDonough said. “It was clear what was going on at this hotel. We had multiple other victims that were going to testify at the trial that they were trafficked at this hotel.”

A hotel co-owner and manager has lived on the premises since 2007 and turned a blind eye to crime, McDonough said. He said the hotel, owned and operated by Tucker Inn since the late 1980s, has been called Americas Best Value Inn Tucker since 2016.

In her complaint, the plaintiff alleged the hotel accommodated 100 or more buyers of sex each day. She said she saw more than 10 sex traffickers and at least 20 other victims there and could hear victims screaming from other rooms.

The hotel said in case filings that it had no knowledge of, or participation in, the plaintiff’s exploitation, for which her trafficker and the buyers were to blame.

McDonough said sex traffickers need a place to conduct their crimes, and they choose hotels that allow it. He said the plaintiff settled on the condition that it would not be confidential, so she could raise awareness.

“She wants the public to know this doesn’t just happen in the shadows — it happens in hotels off the interstate, with children from our communities,” he said.