LR Motel 6 sued over child trafficking
It follows similar lawsuit filed against NLR motel by mother, daughter
Rainwater, Holt & Sexton law firm on Monday sued a Little Rock motel and its operators over child-sex trafficking claims, the second case the firm’s lawyers have brought this year against a local motel.
Like the previous lawsuit, the litigation before Pulaski County Circuit Judge Mackie Pierce is brought on behalf of anonymous mother and daughter “Jane Doe” plaintiffs. It names ASAR Hospitality LLC, doing business as Motel 6 or Studio 6 at 10524 W. Markham St., and its operators Pinke Patel, Ankur Patel and Rameshchandra Patel.
According to the complaint by firm attorneys Meredith Moore and Eric Wewers, the Motel 6 operators ran the motel in a manner that allowed “criminal conduct (to be) rampant, open and obvious.”
“They created an environment that made Motel 6 the perfect breeding ground for sex trafficking ventures and other dangerous and illegal activity that victimized Jane Doe,” the 17-page pleading states. “Defendants did nothing to protect or help protect Jane Doe. Instead, defendants profited off Jane Doe being sex trafficked at Motel 6 by continuing to accept money from her traffickers for room rental at their business.”
The West Markham Street motel has become a “haven for crime” since its operators have controlled it since Jan. 11, 2022, according to the suit. The girl was trafficked for “several weeks” over September 2022 and October 2022, until she was “rescued” by police who took her to the
hospital, the suit states.
“Jane Doe’s condition at the time she was rescued from Motel 6 showed obvious signs of abuse. She was high on drugs, showed signs of abnormal behavior and maltreatment, she was naked and was in distress,” according to the suit, which states she was given illegal drugs on the property, including fentanyl, phencyclidine (PCP), methamphetamine and ecstasy, all of which were found in her system at the hospital.
Further, the girl contracted syphilis due to being forced or coerced into having sex with numerous men per day on the motel grounds, “a known breeding ground for illegal activity,” the suit states. During 2022, Little Rock police went to the motel at least 143 times, investigating six suicides, 85 disturbances, six missing children, and one instance of producing child pornography, according to the suit.
Since February, Moore and Wewers have been representing another anonymous mother and daughter in a sex trafficking suit before Circuit Judge Patti James against North Little Rock Red Roof Inn at 5711 Pritchard Road and its owners and operators, SAI Lodging Inc. of Maumelle, Batesville Lodging Group Inc. of North Little Rock and husband and wife Rajendra and Roshni Patel of Maumelle.
Last year, Moore, Wewers and attorney Denise Hoggard won a $477,000 jury judgment against Patel Legacy Hotels LLC, operating the America’s Best Value Inn at 200 S. Shackleford Road, on behalf of a “Jane Doe” plaintiff forced into sexual slavery at the motel.
Two months later, the sides agreed to a $400,000 settlement so the motel would not appeal the jury verdict.
The motel operators deliberately ignored activity on the grounds that allowed the $65-per-night two-acre property to become a “haven for criminals,” the plaintiffs lawyers said at the January 2023 trial.
A February 2023 suit by Moore and Wewers against Shackleford Crossing Properties LLC, doing business as Home 2 Suites by Hilton at 2700 S. Shackelford Road, was settled confidentially last January after the Jane Doe mother and child plaintiffs dropped co-defendants Sonya Investments Inc., Rajesh Mehta and Pumposh Mehta from the litigation.
The victim in that case was a six-year-old girl whose assailant, 30-year-old Demarcus George of Little Rock, was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to a federal charge of conspiring to sex traffic a child and state charges of second-degree sexual assault, reduced from rape.
Authorities said George infected the girl with sexually transmitted diseases and exposed her to HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
The abuse was discovered in February 2018 when the girl’s mother took her to the hospital where doctors found that she had been infected with gonorrhea sometime in the previous four months.
On another hospital trip eight months later for treatment of rash and fever, doctors found she had chlamydia and syphilis.
George was arrested by state authorities in May 2019. He was federally indicted in September 2019. His federal life sentence was affirmed on appeal in April.
The girl’s doctors told authorities that the number of sexually transmitted diseases the girl was infected with meant that she had likely been abused by more than just one man.
According to federal prosecutors, the girl identified George and another man, 34-year-old Mario Waters, as having sexually assaulted her. She was also able to describe the motel room where it occurred, including a picture on the wall and a curtain, that helped investigators find the hotel, where financial records from the hotel showed that the child’s mother had rented a room there in March 2018.
Waters was sentenced to life in prison in March 2023 after pleading guilty to federal charges of sex trafficking of a minor and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of a minor.