Atlanta jurors reach $164M verdict in federal sex trafficking trial

The former owner of a hotel near Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport must pay $164 million to a young woman who says the hotel’s staff participated in her being sex-trafficked on site when she was a minor, an Atlanta jury has decided.

The verdict was returned Wednesday afternoon in federal court against Lincoln Bancorp LLC, which owned and operated the Super 8 by Wyndham on Old National Highway in College Park from December 2019 to December 2021, court records show.

The judgment follows a then-record $40 million verdict returned by an Atlanta jury in a similar case last year.

In the case tried this week, the identity of the plaintiff, now 22, is protected by a court order. She is referred to in case filings by her initials. She alleged she was sold for sex at the hotel for at least four months in 2020 and 2021, when she was 15 and 16.

The plaintiff’s lead attorney, Pat McDonough, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that it was difficult for her to testify at trial about her ordeal.

“I think she felt judged in front of strangers,” he said Thursday. “But she is very appreciative of the verdict. She feels believed. She said she hopes this helps the next little girl.”

Lawyers for the company did not respond Thursday to an inquiry about the case.

Lincoln Bancorp admitted liability under the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, or TVPRA, case filings show. Specifically, the company admitted that it knowingly benefited from participation in the plaintiff’s trafficking and should have known she was being harmed on its property.

On the third and final day of trial, the jurors decided the company caused injury to the plaintiff, awarding her $44 million in compensation and an additional $120 million in punitive damages designed to punish the company.

Exterior view of Super 8 by Wyndham hotel at 4979 Old National Highway, on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026, in College Park. A woman who says she was sex trafficked at this hotel when she was a minor in 2020 and 2021 has just won a $164 million jury verdict in a federal trial in Atlanta against the company that owned and operated the motel at that time. (Hyosub Shin/AJC)

McDonough, an attorney for plaintiffs in around 100 civil sex trafficking cases, said he believes the verdict is the largest of its kind. He said he encouraged the eight jurors to determine punitive damages knowing the plaintiff was sold for sex at the hotel on at least 120 days.

The $164 million award eclipses a $40 million verdict returned by federal jurors in Atlanta last year in one of McDonough’s other cases, against a DeKalb County hotel. In that case, United Inn & Suites on Memorial Drive became the first hotel in Georgia to be found liable by a jury under the TVPRA.

McDonough said he has two other cases pending against Lincoln Bancorp, filed by women who also claim they were sold for sex at the Super 8 in College Park when they were minors. He said those women testified as witnesses during this week’s trial, as did some of the hotel’s former staff.

Hotel employees helped traffickers who rented rooms, in part by warning them of police presence and by concealing crime on the property, McDonough said. He said one employee was labeled “a snitch” by colleagues after she called 911 because she thought a young girl at the hotel was dying.

The jurors returned their verdict after about two hours of deliberation, he said.

Dozens of sex trafficking lawsuits have been filed in Georgia against hotel owners and operators under the TVPRA. An amendment to that law in 2008 makes liable anyone who knowingly benefits from participation in a venture with sex traffickers.

These cases generally allege hotel owners and operators have allowed sex trafficking on their premises because they profit off the associated business.

Georgia is a hotbed of sex trafficking litigation, in part because of Atlanta’s status as a transportation and human trafficking hub. Last year’s $40 million verdict against United Inn & Suites was believed by plaintiffs’ attorneys to be the largest of its kind at the time.