A federal jury in Atlanta awarded $164 million to a trafficking survivor identified in court records only as J.R., finding the operator of a Super 8 motel liable.

The operator, Lincoln Bancorp LLC, ran the Super 8 on Old National Highway in College Park, Georgia. Her attorneys called it the largest sex-trafficking verdict in US history.

J.R. was 15 when the trafficking began in 2020. At the three-day trial, evidence showed traffickers repeatedly brought her to the hotel through 2020 and 2021. She testified she was sold for sex between seven and 15 times a day and assaulted hundreds of times while 15 and 16.

Testimony focused on what hotel workers allegedly saw. J.R. told jurors she once asked an employee for help reaching a train station and was refused the phone because the worker knew she was connected to the traffickers. Former housekeepers testified rooms were rented by the hour or half-hour and lookouts were paid. "The $44 million is the best the civil justice system can do to represent how big the harm is," her attorney Jonathan Tonge said. Context: the verdict signals courts are holding businesses accountable for alleged failures to stop trafficking on their premises.