A mother and daughter have sued several Motel 6 locations in California for allegedly facilitating sex trafficking, including one in San Luis Obispo.
The lawsuit, first filed in the U.S. Eastern District Court in California on Oct. 28 and then amended on Jan. 12, alleges that sex trafficking and abuse the mother endured while pregnant caused her daughter to be born prematurely by emergency C-section with quadriplegic cerebral palsy, according to court records.
The mother and daughter remained anonymous in the complaint, referred to only as Jane Doe 1 and 2, respectively.
It also alleges that G6 Hospitality LLC, the hotel franchisor that owns Motel 6, failed to take action against the traffic occurring at multiple Motel 6 locations and ignored obvious red flags that could have prevented the abuse, which would have been apparent to hotel staff.
“For years, sex trafficking enterprises have operated eagerly in and out of hotels across the United States, and particularly at Motel 6 and Studio 6 locations,” the complaint states.
The Motel 6 at 1433 Calle Joaquin — now closed — was one of five locations named in the lawsuit for allegedly “knowingly participating in atrocities so insurmountable, so unspeakable, they defy understanding — an agony no woman, no parent, no human should ever be condemned to,” the complaint says.
The building will be converted into affordable housing units by People’s Self-Help Housing.
The other four locations named in the lawsuit were at 1920 Orangeburg Ave., Modesto; 1250 Twin View Blvd., Redding; 250 S. Walnut Road, Turlock; and 150 Northwoods Ave., Manteca.
The mother and daughter are seeking an unspecified amount of compensatory, statutory and punitive damages, including medical costs for negligence and for alleged violations of the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act. The law was expanded in 2008 to include anyone who benefits financially from a business that they knew or should have known was involved in sex trafficking.
A single plaintiff — Pravin G. Patel, the franchise owner of the Manteca location — filed an answer to the complaint on Jan. 12 denying the allegations.
G6 Hospitality LLC did not respond to The Tribune’s request for comment Wednesday evening.
The Motel 6 North at 1433 Calle Joaquin was closed as of January 22, 2026. Plans call for it to be converted to low-income housing.
(Joan Lynch/jlynch@thetribunenews.com)
Motel 6 accused of knowingly facilitating sex trafficking
The mother was lured into being trafficked when her abductor falsely promised her love and financial stability, the lawsuit states.
“She had no idea he was a trafficker,” the lawsuit said. “Once her trafficker gained her trust, things changed quickly.”
He began “controlling her every move, controlling her identification, not letting her access things to get help or get away from him, beating her constantly, depriving her of basic needs, threatening her and her family constantly, and forcing her to engage in commercial sex and follow all the rules he set for her,” the suit says. He also allegedly drugged her and used weapons to control her.
According to the lawsuit, the mother was forced into commercial sex acts — which were often violent in nature — from July 2018 to August 2020, including throughout her pregnancy. She was forced to have sex with eight or more buyers daily, the lawsuit states.
During that time, her trafficker used several Motel 6 locations on a rotating basis.
“Motel 6 was her trafficker’s motel of choice because they were known for trafficking and he knew they would let him get away with it,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit alleges that Motel 6 profited by regularly and knowingly renting rooms to sex traffickers, where they could operate without detection or disruption.
Online reviews for the Motel 6 locations mentioned in the lawsuit refer to alleged potential sex trafficking at the hotel chain, including the SLO location.
The mother’s lawsuit alleges that at some Motel 6 locations, managers estimated that as much as 90 percent of business and profits were directly related to traffic, and that when traffic was reported to the chain, they were encouraged to look elsewhere.
The complaint also said that Motel 6 locations are “promising” as a result of sex trafficking.
“For them, it’s a well-thought-out business decision,” the lawsuit said.
For the mother and daughter, however, it’s “a nightmare they’ll never wake up from,” the lawsuit says, noting that Motel 6 “destroyed their lives.”
G6 Hospitality LLC has faced a number of sex-trafficking lawsuits in recent years, with complaints claiming the chain should be held more liable than its franchisees.
Nor was it the first time an SLO County Motel 6 location was involved in a sex-trafficking case, with a Pismo Beach location named in a 2016 lawsuit in which four people were accused of trafficking a 15-year-old Manteca girl.
The lawsuit alleges that Motel 6 staff knew about the traffic
The mother’s lawsuit alleges that her abuse was known to hotel staff, as well as the fact that she was visibly pregnant in the final months of being trafficked.
Although the San Luis Obispo hotel was named among the Motel 6 locations, additional details about the mother’s experiences at that particular location were not shared in the lawsuit.
At a Motel 6 in Manteca, the woman would often run from her trafficker through the halls screaming, at which motel staff repeatedly asked her if she was okay and told her to calm down, but did not offer to help her or stop further abuse, according to the lawsuit. The hotel owners allegedly lived on the property and knew of the mother’s trafficker, according to the lawsuit.
The owner of another location in Turlock was also allegedly aware that the mother was being trafficked and “approached her several times in suggestive ways as if she wanted to participate,” the suit says.
“Jane Doe 1 felt helpless and knew she could not tell the employees or ask them for help because they made it clear that she knew her trafficker and would not help her,” the lawsuit says.
Hotel staff at a Modesto Motel 6 location and the front desk woman in particular maintained a “very friendly relationship” with the mother’s trafficker and often let them sleep in the parking lot where the mother gave money to her trafficker, the lawsuit states.
“She would be constantly stalked and abused at this location,” the lawsuit said.
The mother’s trafficker was aggressive with her in front of staff at this location and was not allowed to speak to anyone or make eye contact, the lawsuit states. Other victims would have been trafficked there.
It was at the Modesto location that the mother had to be taken to the hospital for an emergency c-section due to forced intercourse. He was previously denied medical care despite desperate pleas, according to the lawsuit.
She was “so abused, so often while pregnant, that she nearly lost her baby, Jane Doe 2, and her life,” the suit says.
The caesarean section eventually led to her escape from her captor.
“Our clients have suffered unimaginable trauma that has left them physically and emotionally scarred for life,” Meagan Verschueren, the mother and daughter’s attorney, said in a news release Tuesday. “It is concerning that their suffering has continued for so long, with several hotel locations turning a blind eye, not only to a woman who is openly trafficked for sex, but also to the foreseeable harm to her unborn child.”
A future hearing or court date in this case has not yet been scheduled.