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Image: Map of Southeast 82nd Avenue in Portland, Oregon. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.
A Portland woman who says she was sexually trafficked beginning at age 13 has filed a $5 million lawsuit against the owners of a motel where she alleges employees repeatedly ignored clear signs of her exploitation, OregonLive.com reported.
The lawsuit targets the Aaron Motel on Portland’s 82nd Avenue, an area that has faced longstanding concerns about commercial sex trafficking.
According to reporting by The Oregonian and FOX 12 Oregon, the woman alleges that she was trafficked through the motel between May 2021 and January 2024, when she was between 13 and 16 years old.
Lawsuit Says Employees Repeatedly Rented Rooms to a Minor
The woman alleges that motel employees became familiar with her over the years because she returned so frequently.
According to the lawsuit, staff allowed her to rent rooms despite her young age, sometimes while she was accompanied by significantly older men.
The visits were often brief. The complaint describes situations in which rooms were rented and keys returned just 30 to 60 minutes later.
The plaintiff argues that these repeated encounters should have raised concerns about child sexual exploitation, particularly given the motel’s location in an area where trafficking activity had long been reported.
Instead, she alleges, the business continued providing rooms without taking appropriate steps to protect her.
The lawsuit seeks to hold the motel’s owners financially responsible for allegedly allowing the exploitation to continue on their property.
Sexual Abuse and Trafficking Lawsuits in Oregon
Survivors of childhood sexual abuse or trafficking may have grounds for civil claims against individuals, businesses or institutions that allegedly enabled their exploitation.
Learn about filing deadlines, institutional responsibility and potential legal options in our Oregon Sexual Abuse Lawsuit Guide.
Can Motels Be Held Responsible for Sex Trafficking?
The case focuses on institutional responsibility rather than solely on the individuals who allegedly trafficked or sexually abused the girl.
Hotels and motels can face civil lawsuits when plaintiffs allege that businesses knowingly benefited from trafficking activity and had sufficient knowledge of the circumstances.
Under the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, trafficking survivors may pursue certain civil claims against businesses that knowingly benefit from participation in a venture they knew or should have known was engaged in trafficking.
That doesn’t mean a hotel is automatically responsible whenever trafficking occurs on its property.
A lawsuit must establish the legal requirements for liability, which can involve examining employee observations, repeated room rentals, payment practices, prior complaints and other evidence.
In this case, the plaintiff alleges that the frequency of her visits, her apparent age and the conduct of adults accompanying her should have alerted motel employees that something was wrong.
Whether those allegations establish legal responsibility will be determined through the litigation.
Portland’s 82nd Avenue Has Been the Focus of Trafficking Investigations
The lawsuit comes amid increased scrutiny of child sex trafficking in Portland.
On October 7, 2026, the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office announced that 32 men had been charged in an investigation involving the sexual exploitation of a girl between the ages of 13 and 17.
At the time, prosecutors reported eight convictions and said additional charges were possible.
The investigation, which began along Southeast 82nd Avenue in late 2023, resulted in prison sentences for two men identified as traffickers.
Those criminal proceedings demonstrate the scale of the trafficking concerns authorities have been investigating in the area.
However, the available reporting does not establish whether the plaintiff in the Aaron Motel lawsuit is the same survivor involved in those prosecutions.
Survivor Seeks Accountability Beyond Her Traffickers
The woman is requesting $5 million in damages from the motel.
For trafficking survivors, civil claims may provide an additional avenue for accountability when the evidence suggests that a hotel, motel or another business knowingly benefited from exploitation or failed to respond to circumstances that should have alerted it to trafficking.
