ORLANDO – A federal judge has decreed that a woman’s litigation against WHG SU and Choice Hotels under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act will proceed, having overcome motions to dismiss and to strike allegations from the complaint.

U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida Judge Julie S. Sneed issued a judicial order to that effect on June 12, in Jane Doe K.R.’s lawsuit versus WHG SU Delegates, LLC (WHG SU), Choice Hotels International, Inc. and Choice Hotels International Services Corp.

“According to plaintiff’s complaint, for approximately 12 weeks between March and May 2013, plaintiff was a victim of sex trafficking at the Suburban Extended Stay (Suburban Orlando), a hotel in Orlando, Florida. At all times relevant to the complaint, the Suburban Orlando was owned and operated by WHG SU and was branded by Choice Hotels as the franchisor. Plaintiff alleges that she was forced into human trafficking by an individual named Quantae Veals, who forced plaintiff to have sex with various ‘johns’ for profit at the Suburban Orlando. Plaintiff was 18 years old. According to plaintiff, her sexual exploitation ‘occurred repeatedly in rooms of the Suburban Orlando’ and it was ‘patently obvious’ to the hotel’s staff that she was a victim of human trafficking. Plaintiff alleges that defendants, as the owner and operator and franchisor, were aware that sex trafficking was occurring at the Suburban Orlando because of their monitoring of online reviews of the hotel and surveillance footage and inspections of hotel property, and that ‘traffickers, including [plaintiff’s] trafficker, operated with little regard for concealment due to an implicit understanding between the hotel staff of the Suburban Orlando and the traffickers,” Sneed said.