She claimed she was sex-trafficked at Hosmer hotel. Then her lawsuit was dropped
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- A federal sex-trafficking lawsuit against a former Tacoma hotel has been dismissed.
- A woman claimed she was forced to have sex at the lodging establishment from 2019 to 2021.
- The plaintiff filed to voluntarily drop the case. The former hotel denied wrongdoing.
A federal sex-trafficking lawsuit against the owner/operator of a former South End Tacoma hotel has been voluntarily dismissed, court records show.
The lawsuit, filed in August, alleged that the Quality Inn & Suites failed to protect a woman, born in 1999, who was repeatedly forced between 2019 and 2021 to have sex for money at the lodging establishment on South Hosmer Street.
Attorneys for the woman and the former hotel business recently filed a notice in U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington, to dismiss the case, court records show.
The May 27 filing said that the plaintiff and the defendant, Tacoma Hotel Motel LLC, “hereby give notice of voluntarily dismissal of this action without prejudice” — a legal term that means the case could technically be filed again.
An attorney representing the plaintiff declined to comment this week when asked to discuss the decision to dismiss the matter. A message left for lawyers for Tacoma Hotel Motel LLC was not returned.
There was no indication in court records that the case had reached a settlement. As of January, it was anticipated to head to trial late next year.
The suit accused Tacoma Hotel Motel LLC of not timely or properly implementing industry accepted anti-trafficking policies. It also alleged that the victim’s trafficker had paid or compensated one or more employees to act as lookouts or informants for police activity.
Other victims were allegedly forced to have sex for money at the hotel by the plaintiff’s trafficker, who used proceeds from the illicit activity to pay for the room(s), according to the suit.
Tacoma Hotel Motel LLC denied wrongdoing and sought to dismiss the complaint in October, court records show. It said it acted at all times in accordance with federal anti-trafficking law, and it cited more than a dozen defenses, including that it had no control over actions of third parties nor any responsibility for the intentional criminal acts of another.
The former hotel at 8810 S. Hosmer St. is on a stretch of street in Tacoma that once had been clustered with lodging establishments and had grown notorious for crime. While other lodging sites have shifted to affordable housing in recent years, the Quality Inn & Suites has been used since at least September to house asylum-seeking refugees. It is being planned to be bought by the refugee advocacy organization Thrive International, The News Tribune reported last month.
