Fort Pierce - Friday August 23, 2024: This week on in Focus, from IRSC Public Media, Stuart attorney Travis Walker. He's filed a major lawsuit against several nationally known hotel chains alleging their involvement in child sex trafficking.
He’s representing a young girl who was trafficked into prostitution he says by her mother who sought money to buy drugs.
The major hotels cited in the lawsuit include Wyndham Hotels, and some of the franchised hotels owned by Choice Hotels International, specifically the Days Inn, Quality Inn, and Holiday Inn & Suites in Florida.
The lawsuit also cites an adult dating website called 'Backpage', and ‘Salesforce', a company that provides software applications for the management of customer relations. In addition, several “Johns” are named, "Johns" are the customers who patronize prostitutes.
The 152-page complaint was filed in the U.S District Court for the Middle District of Florida on July 17.
We called attorney Walker to find out more about the lawsuit, how he got involved, and what he hope will be the outcome.
Then we'll turn to what was virtually a tie vote in Tuesday's Primary Election for the Republican nomination for St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections.
That position is currently held by Democrat Gertrude Walker who has been conducting a mandatory recount. The Republican challenger who prevails in this re-count will then go on to challenge Walker herself in the November General Election.
We got ahold of Walker this past week to ask her about the recount procedure, and when we'll find out who the winner is.