Three Hotels Agree to Pay $17.5M in Sex Trafficking Settlement

By Jordan Bradley

Three hotels in Philadelphia in a March 13 settlement agreed to pay $17.5 million to three women who were allegedly trafficked at their properties from May 2015 to January 2017.

The three victims alleged that the owners of the three hotels—the Motel 6 and Days Inn on Philadelphia’s Roosevelt Boulevard and a former North American Motors Inn on City Avenue—had reason enough to suspect human trafficking was happening at their hotels and did not take proper action to prevent it.

According to the lawsuit, the hotels failed to retain adequate security personnel despite repeated police visits and phone calls as well as evidence of ongoing criminal activity at the three hotels.

The Days Inn named in the lawsuit had previously hired a security guard with a history of federal felony conviction and who was later arrested for human trafficking after he had been working at the hotel for years, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Adrian Palmer of Philadelphia worked as a guard at the Days Inn property in June 2012. While employed, Palmer “provided protection and assistance” to a pimp recruiting runaway teenage girls to work as prostitutes, the Inquirer reported, for which he collected between $60–$100 per day.

Palmer pleaded guilty to conspiracy, sex trafficking and attempted sec trafficking of a minor in October 2013.

Moreover, the Motel 6 named in the suit had a single screen for its security camera system located in the owner’s locked office, according to attorneys with Kline & Specter hired to represent the plaintiffs.

“Instead of hiring qualified security and adoption and enforcement policies against criminal activity, the hotels did nothing and permitted criminal activity to the detriment of our clients,” said Emily Marks, an attorney with Kline & Specter.

The three women filed lawsuits between 2022–2024 in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas. At the time of the trafficking, the women were 14–17 years old.
According to the suit, police were called and responded to disturbances at the hotels several times. Despite this, the hotels did not enhance security, the suit alleges.

The suit also notes at the Motel 6 and the North American Motors Inn when one plaintiff was trafficked in August 2015, hotel staff and security overlooked clear signs of trafficking, including an excess of condoms in rooms, the renting of neighboring rooms, individuals in possession of large amounts of cash, refusal of housekeeping services, high volume of foot traffic, and guests checking in without luggage.

This lawsuit was also not the first for the North American Motors Inn, according to the Inquirer. In a February 2024 settlement also brought by Kline & Specter, two women were awarded $24.5 million for allegedly being sex trafficked at the property in 2013. In yet another case won by Kline & Specter attorneys in October 2023 against the North American Motors Inn, three sex trafficking survivors were awarded $37.5 million.

“It’s disturbing, I mean really disturbing that these children are being abused, raped and trafficked at local hotels,” said Nadeem Bezar, an attorney with Kline & Specter. “Even more upsetting is that these economy or budget hotels continue to fail to properly secure their properties and protect people especially children from being assaulted.”

The three women who pursued the most recent case—who were only identified by their initials to protect their identities—will receive a portion each of the $17.5 million.

The settlement did not specify how the money would be distributed between them.

The case was scheduled for trial on March 24 prior to the settlement, according to Kline & Specter.

The defendants included Eighty Eight L.P. and Eight, Inc., owners of the Motel 6; G6 Hospitality and related companies, the parent company of the Motel 6 brand; Ramara Inc., the owner of the North American Motors Inn at the time of alleged trafficking before it sold the property in 2019; and City Line Corp., which leased the Motors Inn from Ramara.

Defendants either could not be reached for comment or did not respond to USAE request for comment regarding the case.