The brother of Republican megadonor Harlan Crow must stand trial on charges of financing a 100-person sex trafficking ring, a judge in Texas has ruled – paving the way for an explosive trial against one of Texas’ richest families.
Trammell Crow, a 72-year-old real estate magnate and environmental philanthropist, is accused by two women of providing “significant financial support” to the network.
The women, Julia Hubbard and Kayla Goedinghaus, allege that starting in 2010 they were drugged and then forced into sexual acts by a group of doctors involved in the scheme.
They claim the group’s leader was Julia Hubbard’s then-husband Richard Hubbard, who controlled them until 2018, she claims. Goedinghaus was his fiancée but escaped the group in 2020.
One of the women became “virtually a long-time sex slave,” the lawsuit says, and another was also beaten and raped.
Crow, who met the Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson at his Austin ranch earlier this year to discuss environmental issues, said through his lawyer that the case was “absurd and patently false.”
His brother Harlan Crow, 74, made headlines of his own for his decades-long friendship with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Trammell Crow is seen at the Global Green 20th Anniversary Environmental Awards in Los Angeles in September 2016. Crow, now 72, is accused of financially supporting the sex trafficking ring. His lawyers call the case “absurd”
Crow is accused of funding the sex trafficking ring and ignoring women’s cries for help
The Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson spent time with Trammell Crow at his Austin ranch earlier this year to discuss environmental issues. She is pictured in Sweden on September 14th
Harlan Crow treated justice to a series of lavish trips, including flights on his private jet, island hopping on his yacht and vacations at his estate in the Adirondacks.
He also purchased the judge’s mother’s home in Savannah, Georgia, and helped pay private school tuition for the judge’s great-nephew, whom he raised.
The revelation of Harlan Crow’s generosity sparked soul-searching at the Supreme Court and led to stricter requirements for judges to disclose their gifts.
The Crow family is one of the most powerful in Texas.
Harlan Crow is chairman and former CEO of Crow Holdings, a Texas-based family real estate company with $29 billion in assets.
Harlan and Trammell Crow’s father, prominent real estate developer Trammell Crow Sr., founded the company in 1948 and the Crow family name can be found on buildings throughout Dallas.
Four of the six Crow siblings followed their legendary father into real estate: Harlan, Trammell, their brother Stuart and their sister Lucy.
Trammell Crow was first accused by the women in a lawsuit filed in California in November 2022. The case was moved to Texas, where most of the defendants live.
Trammell Crow is seen at a fundraiser for a wildlife charity in the Hamptons in August 2021
Crow is pictured at Nova’s Ark Project in the Hamptons in August 2021
Crow’s team attempted to have the charges dropped, saying they were baseless.
But on Monday, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery, sitting in San Antonio, ordered the case to go to trial.
John Balestriere, a lawyer for the women, told that they were “extremely pleased” with the verdict and looked forward to preparing for trial, including gathering evidence and deposing the defendants.
Balestriere noted that his firm represented plaintiffs who won a sex trafficking jury trial in federal court in Brooklyn last year, adding: “Our clients and we are willing to go the distance.”
Crow’s lawyers told that the verdict was “disappointing but not a surprise” as the court is barred from questioning the veracity of the allegations at this early stage.
“We continue to deny the allegations and believe that the plaintiffs’ story paints a picture of numerous problematic and broken domestic relationships,” they said.
“The account of events linking our client to this story is absurd and patently false.”
“We are sure the evidence will make this clear in future trials.”
The women say Julia Hubbard met Trammell Crow while she was working as a waitress at a Dallas nightclub and invited him to her modeling events.
Crow met her then-husband Richard through Julia Hubbard.
Justice Clarence Thomas’ friendship with billionaire real estate developer Harlan Crow (right), Trammell Crow’s brother, has raised questions about ethics at the Supreme Court
Harlan Crow, 74, has been in the spotlight this year for his friendship with Clarence Thomas
The Supreme Court’s nine justices bowed to public pressure and published a code of conduct on November 13, although they insisted they were already bound by ethics rules
Crow hosted sex parties at his Marble Falls home, the women allege, and refused to help them when they begged him for help.
“Defendant Crow knew or recklessly disregarded that Plaintiffs would be forced to engage in commercial sex acts, as Plaintiff Hubbard had already informed Crow in 2011 that she was being forced by Venture to engage in commercial sex acts against her
her will,” the court filing states.
The women allege in their filings that doctors, a Texas Ranger and others worked to keep the women drugged and ran “an illegal extortion enterprise.”
They allege that Texas Ranger Cody Mitchell was used to threaten them with “arrests on false charges” and to discourage them from seeking the help of law enforcement.
Mitchell sent the group’s accused ringleader, Richard Hubbard, a photo of him in his patrol car with a bottle of alcohol and his penis exposed, according to documents obtained by Dallas Express.
The photo was shown to the women as a threat, their lawyers claim.
They claim that a psychologist, Dr. Benjamin Todd Eller, hired by Hubbard to falsely claim that the women were “severely psychiatrically disturbed” in order to secure high-dose prescriptions of “Xanax, Adderall, Oxycodone, Marinol, Soma, Lorazepam, Ambien, and Trazadone.”
The women allege that Crow was involved from the beginning of the human trafficking ring in 2010 and “knew all the details of the violence, fraud, threats and coercion … and without him the operation could never have succeeded.”
The lawsuit further alleges that the Texas billionaire hosted sex parties at which the women were made available to his guests and maintained so-called “lingerie rooms” at his properties “in which he also kept a variety of lingerie available for female guests to wear.” .” as what he called ‘stripper shoes’.”
The women allege a conspiracy “to traffic women for the purpose of sexual acts and forced labor, for the financial benefit of defendant Hubbard, defendant Eller and the defendant doctors, and for the sexual gratification and benefit of all other defendants.”