Raleigh Motel 6 sued, accused of allowing sex trafficking, acting as lookouts
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- Federal suit alleges Motel 6 staff knowingly enabled sex trafficking at Raleigh motel.
- Plaintiff C.T. says staff ignored signs, acted as lookouts and collected cash.
- Case cites failures in training, monitoring and reporting despite federal, state laws.
A sex-trafficking survivor has sued a Motel 6 in Raleigh, alleging its staff knowingly allowed her to be repeatedly victimized there when she was 16, at times acting as a lookout for police.
The federal lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, accuses franchisee Shri Hari Raleigh of failing to act on “obvious and overt signs” in a period that involved multiple daily sex buyers between 2017 and 2018.
The suit describes victims, including the plaintiff identified only as C.T., walking around the motel grounds at 2641 Appliance Court while impaired by drugs and alcohol, “sleep deprived, hygiene impaired, behavior impaired, with visible bruising, malnourished, and in sexually explicit clothing.”
Motel staff witnessed physical and verbal abuse, saw heavy foot traffic coming and going, knew about suspicious cash, drugs, condoms and lubricants in the rooms and would sometimes keep watch or act as informants.
The victim’s trafficker would renew the room rent daily, the suit says.
“Years before the plaintiff was trafficked, defendants knew or should have known of the critical role that the hotel industry plays in enabling the sex trade industry and of the widespread national epidemic of hotel/motel sex trafficking,” the lawsuit said. “Before and during the relevant period, defendants failed to implement sufficient educational and training programs on sex trafficking within its business chain of command, as well as failed to implement policies for preventing, identifying, reporting, documenting, investigating, and stopping sex trafficking.”
Reached by The N&O Wednesday, Rekha Patel, the registered agent for Shri Hari Raleigh since 2015, declined to comment.
The Raleigh lawsuit is at least the third filed this year against a major motel chain accused of allowing sex trafficking to thrive.
The national sexual abuse law firm Andreozzi and Foote has filed a similar suit against the Greenleafe Inn in Charlotte, also involving a 16-year-old, said attorney Alexander Marcinko. The suits represent a move toward holding the hotels accountable for the crimes that happen on their premises rather than the perpetrators alone.
“The goal here, ultimately, is insitutional accountability,” Marcinko said.
In June, a woman identified only as D.H. sued those operating a Super 8 on Texland Boulevard in Charlotte, alleging she was raped there 10 to 20 times a day while a minor in 2014. The owners did not respond to WCNC Charlotte at the time.
“Defendants were aware of their reputation,” the suit said. “Despite this, instead of taking action, defendants chose to do nothing; thereby creating a safe space for those seeking to commit crimes without fear of detection or consequence. Defendants then profited off the increased room rentals.”
Among hotel chains, locally owned lodging ranked as the top venues for trafficking in 2023 nationally, according to the Human Trafficking Institute, a group working to curb traffickers.
Federal legislation dating to 2000 puts hotels and motels “on notice” that their businesses are havens for sex trafficking and makes them liable when it occurs, the suit says. Meanwhile, a new state law requires hotels, motels and vacation rentals to report possible sex trafficking and train staff to detect the crime.
Prevention guidelines have long been available through the industry, including not taking cash, monitoring multiple people visiting a single room and looking out for their business name on Craigslist or Backpage ads. Yet experts say the problem persists.
In 2020, a News & Observer investigation found that eight Raleigh motels averaged more than one 911 call a day. Earlier that year, Raleigh police charged a 20-year-old woman with keeping a teenage girl for prostitution at the Days Inn on South Wilmington Street — her second arrest for human trafficking.
In the Motel 6 case, C.T. continues to suffer “substantial economic, physical, mental, emotional, psychiatric, psychological injuries.”
“These girls,” said Marcinko, referencing defendants in both Raleigh and Charlotte cases, “were both physically abused by the traffickers and, for lack of a better word, the clientele.”
C.T. seeks a jury trial and an unspecified amount of damages.
This story was originally published November 5, 2025 at 2:26 PM.