Katie Llamas, Counsel at Singleton Schreiber in San Diego, was recently featured in The Mercury News' article, "A Contra Costa County woman said she was sex trafficked for years; she’s filed a federal lawsuit against the hotels and motels that allowed it".
The article provides an overview of a recent sex-trafficking lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court's Northern District of California against several hotel & motels in California on behalf of a Contra Costa County resident who alleges that employees should have been more cognizant of what was happening, citing multiple signs of physical abuse, physical injuries, sounds of abuse, signs of drug use, and more.
“There is a federal statute that allows us to hold accountable and responsible any entity that knew or should’ve known that there was trafficking going on there,” said Ms. Llamas.” We believe that there was trafficking and that the hotels and motels had knowledge of it. Some of the red flags were more noticeable than others. They allowed it to happen because they were profiting off it.
Ms. Llamas concluded by saying, "The hotel industry needs to do better. It’s tough for survivors to come forward. They’re scared and have gone through so much trauma. A lot of them, they don’t even know they have options. These cases are becoming more and more prevalent, as more survivors find out they do have civil recourse.”
