Lawsuit Filed After Teen Allegedly Forced To Have Sex With 1,000 Men Over 2 Years
PHILADELPHIA (CBS)--For the first time since the state's human trafficking law has been enacted, lawyers in Center City are using it to hold a Northeast Philly Motel responsible for the sexual exploitation of a teenager.
"This child was forced into sex slavery, paid to do things with men double, triple, quadruple her age, " said Nadeem Bezar, with Kline & Specter PC.
Lawyers allege employees at the Roosevelt Inn knew that a 14-year-old girl was being held here against her will for two years.
In that time she was forced to have sex with more than a 1,000 men for as little as $50.
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"She is devastated by what happened to her and just trying to piece her life back together," said Bezar.
The girl-- now 17-- wants this hotel to pay for what happened her.
Under the 2014 law, she's suing the Roosevelt Inn's owners, the larger management company that runs it, and even the motel manager Yanga Patel.
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When Eyewitness News tried to talk to the motel manager about the lawsuit he didn't want to say much except deny the allegations.
"I was always in the office I didn't see anything wrong," said Patel.
"You have to be blind deaf and dumb not to know that over 100 men are showing up over a period of a couple days," says Attorney Tom Kline, who's representing the victim. "You have a cleaning crew, that comes into the room and often times finds boxes or waste cans full of use condoms…this is about as open and obvious as it gets"
Kline says it is a flagrant and blatant example of a motel looking the other way and profiting.
"You can't have a line of johns out the front door and around the room waiting without them knowing the linen service was extra ordinary. The front desk would direct the traffic to the room of this child."
Kline says if the people responsible are not held criminally liable he says hitting them in the pocketbook will go a long way in policing this conduct.
The victim is currently going through therapy and trying re-rail her derailed life.