The brother of Republican megadonor Harlan Crow must stand trial on charges of financing a 100-man sex trafficking ring, a Texas judge has ruled. This paves the way for an exciting lawsuit involving one of the wealthiest families in Texas.
Trammell Crow, a 72-year-old real estate magnate and environmental philanthropist, is accused by two women of providing “vital financial support” to the network.
The women, Julia Hubbard and Kayla Goedinghaus, allege that beginning in 2010 they were drugged by a group of doctors involved in the scheme and then forced to perform sex acts.
They claim the group’s leader was Julia Hubbard’s then-husband, Richard Hubbard, who controlled her until 2018, she claims. Goedinghaus was his fiancée, but escaped from the group in 2020.
One of the women became “a virtual long-term sex slave,” the complaint 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 blatantly untrue.”
His brother Harlan Crow, 74, was himself in the news for his decades-long friendship with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Trammell Crow, 72, is accused of providing financial support to the sex trade. His lawyers call the case ‘absurd’
Harlan Crow treated the judge 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 bought the judge’s mother’s house in Savannah, Georgia, and helped pay for the private school tuition of the judge’s second cousin, whom he raised.
The revelation about Harlan Crow’s generosity sparked intense scrutiny at the Supreme Court and has led to stricter requirements for judges to disclose their gifts.
The Crow family is among the most powerful in Texas.
Harlan Crow is the 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, noted 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 sister Lucy.
Trammell Crow was first accused by the women in a November 2022 lawsuit filed in California. The case was transferred to Texas, where most of the defendants live.
Crow’s team tried to get the charges dismissed, arguing 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 DailyMail.com they were “extremely satisfied” with the ruling and looked forward to preparing for the trial, including gathering evidence and deposing the defendants.
Noting that his firm represented plaintiffs who won a sex trafficking jury trial in Brooklyn federal court last year, Balestriere added, “Our clients and we are willing to go to any lengths.”
Crow’s lawyers told DailyMail.com that the ruling was “disappointing but not a surprise as the court is prohibited from questioning the veracity of the claims at this early stage.”
“We continue to dispute the allegations and believe that the accusers’ story paints a picture of numerous disturbed and broken domestic relationships,” they said.
“The account of events linking our client to this story is absurd and blatantly untrue.
“We are confident that the evidence will make that clear in future legal proceedings.”
The women say Julia Hubbard met Trammell Crow while working as a waitress at a Dallas nightclub and invited him to her modeling events.
Crow met her then husband Richard through Julia Hubbard.
Harlan Crow, 74, has been in the spotlight this year for his friendship with Clarence Thomas
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 ignored, that Plaintiffs would be coerced to engage in commercial sex acts because Plaintiff Hubbard informed Crow in 2011 that she was being coerced by the Venture to perform commercial sex acts against
her will,” according to the court filing.
The women allege in their filings that doctors, a Texas Ranger and others worked to keep the women drugged and run “an illegal racketeering enterprise.”
They allege that Texas Ranger, Cody Mitchell, was used to threaten them with “arrests under false charges” and discourage them from seeking police assistance.
Mitchell sent the group’s accused leader, Richard Hubbard, a photo of him in his police 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, was enlisted by Hubbard to falsely claim that the women had “severe psychiatric problems” to secure heavy dose prescriptions of “Xanax, Adderall, Oxycodone, Marinol, Soma, Lorazepam, Ambien.” , and Trazadone.”
The women allege that Crow was involved at the start of the trafficking ring in 2010 and “knew all the details of the violence, the fraud, the threats and the coercion… and without him the enterprise could never have succeeded.”
The lawsuit further alleges that the Texas billionaire hosted sex parties where the women were outsourced to his guests, and that he maintained so-called “lingerie rooms” at his properties, “in which he kept a variety of lingerie for female guests to wear, as well 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 Physicians and for the sexual gratification and benefits of all other Defendants.”