A lawsuit filed last month in Pulaski County Circuit Court alleging that the North Little Rock Motel 6 allowed sex trafficking on the premises last year has been transferred to federal court.
The anonymous plaintiff, identified only as Jane Doe, accuses motel franchise owner Stone Hospitality of ignoring her cries for help while she was forced to work as a prostitute at the motel at 400 W. 29th St. from March through August of 2019.
The suit describes the motel as a "well-known spot for human trafficking."
Attorneys for the franchisee removed the case to federal court Wednesday, and the plaintiff, represented by the Rainwater, Holt & Sexton law firm, filed an amended complaint on Thursday.
The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Brian Miller.
The attorneys for the plaintiff already are representing another anonymous woman in another federal lawsuit pending against the owners of the Quality Inn & Suites on Mitchell Drive in Little Rock. That woman says she was a victim of sex trafficking at the hotel in 2014 and that the hotel operators knew about it and wouldn't help her.
That lawsuit originally named Seven Star Hotels Group Inc. as the operator of the Little Rock hotel during the time the woman said she was held hostage there. The attorneys for the plaintiff dropped Seven Star as a defendant on July 6, saying they had determined that the group wasn't operating the hotel at the time. The complaint still names Shri Jinasha LLC and some individuals as the defendants.
The Huckabay law firm in Little Rock has asked U.S. District Judge Billy Roy Wilson to dismiss the lawsuit against the Little Rock hotel and its operators, saying the allegations are barred by Arkansas' statute of limitations.