Little Rock hotel ignored human trafficking, lawsuit claims

LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — There may be dozens of victims, but just one so far is publicly claiming that the owners of a Little Rock hotel ignored sex trafficking that was taking place.

According to a lawsuit filed in Pulaski County, the entire fourth floor of the Quality Inn & Suites on Mitchell Drive was used for human trafficking.

Attorneys with Rainwater, Holt & Sexton, Meredith Moore and Lauren Manatt, filed suit against Seven Star Hotels Group, Inc., Quality Inn & Suites; Shri Jinasha, Rajni Patel and Lina Patel.

Moore told KATV, not only was management aware, but even housekeepers knew what was going on.

“The housekeeping staff definitely knew what was going on,” said Moore. “They were actually being told which days they were allowed to come and clean the rooms on the fourth floor.”

The lawsuit states that between May and June of 2014, a victim was held against her will at the hotel. She was reportedly forced to have sex and perform sexual acts on up to 12 people a day.

"The phones to these rooms were disconnected, there were 10-20 key cards that would be lying around the rooms that were being given to some of the customers to actually access the building from the side,” added Moore.

The victim was allegedly choked and beaten multiple times a week by her trafficker and screamed for her life, but never received help from hotel management or staff.

"Our plaintiff understands that she may not get paid back for everything that was done to her under the eyes of management and ownership of that Quality Inn, at the time, and we're aware of that too,” said Moore. “Our overarching goal here would be for some sort of societal change that people start understanding what this really is."

The hotel now has new owners, it's being renovated, and there is a new sign; Geyer Springs Inn & Suites. Moore said the new owner is vowing to make sure this never happens again.

Moore added that this is the first lawsuit of its kind in Arkansas and just among a few in the nation.

As far as the previous owners, one company is listed as dissolved while the other is not current according to the Arkansas Secretary of State’s website.

Channel 7 looked through police call logs and found that over the last ten years, 991 calls were made to police requesting assistance at this hotel; most were either drug-related or for arrest warrants.