A federal jury in Atlanta has awarded $40 million to a young woman who was sex trafficked at the United Inn & Suites hotel in Decatur, Georgia.
The woman, identified only as “J.G.” in the lawsuit, was just 16 years old when she was held at the hotel for 40 days in 2018 and 2019, and forced to have sex with at least 200 men, according to her lawsuit.
Lawyers claimed hotel staff knew she was being sex trafficked on their property, yet failed to help, even when contacted by police. She said front desk staff gave her condoms and ignored obvious signs of sex trafficking, like dozens of men entering and leaving a room occupied by a 16-year-old girl.
The jury was also shown evidence that police contacted the hotel with a missing child report that included her name, age, and photo, and yet hotel employees still did not intervene.
She filed a lawsuit in 2020, when this type of case was still relatively new. After 5 years of investigation, the case went to trial in Atlanta.
In July 2025, the trial ended in a landmark $40 million verdict, with the jury ordering hotel owner Northbrook Industries to pay her $10 million in compensatory damages and $30 million in punitive damages — the largest sex trafficking verdict in U.S. history.
Her lawsuit was also the first case in the U.S. to result in a jury award under the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA), which lets sex trafficking survivors file lawsuits against hotels.
In recent years, hotels have been hit with dozens of TVPRA lawsuits from child sex trafficking survivors. Many cases have ended in settlements, including a $6 million sex trafficking settlement by a hotel in Tucker, Georgia earlier in July 2025.
Source: Decatur hotel ordered to pay $40M for ignoring child sex trafficking