{"id":152909,"date":"2026-01-28T06:09:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T06:09:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/152909\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T06:09:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T06:09:25","slug":"luxury-san-francisco-apartment-workers-took-cash-to-turn-blind-eye-to-blatant-sex-trafficking-suit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/152909\/","title":{"rendered":"Luxury San Francisco apartment workers took cash to turn blind eye to blatant sex trafficking: suit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"An<\/p>\n

An image collage containing 1 images, Image 1 shows composite photo showing a naked woman in bed and an inset of the Townsend Apartments<\/p>\n

Employees at two luxury San Francisco apartment complexes allegedly accepted hefty bribes to turn a blind eye to a sex trafficking ring<\/a> that sold underage girls on the properties, according to a new federal lawsuit.<\/p>\n

The stomach-churning allegations were laid out in the complaint filed this month against AvalonBay Communities and South Beach Marina Apartments by an alleged victim who endured near-daily exploitation between 2018-19.<\/p>\n

The victim, identified only as A.V. in the court documents, was just 17 years old when she was \u201cforced into the life of involuntary sexual servitude\u201d by a \u201cnotorious sex trafficker\u201d named in the filing as Tom Roe.<\/p>\n

Her nightmare allegedly began in the fall of 2018, when A.V. was still a high school student, according to the suit.<\/p>\n

A.V. and two other alleged victims were forced to live in a $7,500-per-month, one-bedroom apartment on Townsend Street in a sprawling waterfront complex owned by South Beach Marina, the suit claimed.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A one-bedroom unit at a Townsend Apartment served \u201cas the headquarters of Tom Roe\u2019s sex trafficking scheme,\u201d according to the lawsuit. GOOGLE<\/p>\n

The building, which features a tennis court, pool, sauna and panoramic views of the bay, was used as \u201cheadquarters of Tom Roe\u2019s sex trafficking scheme,\u201d according to the filing.<\/p>\n

A.V. and the alleged sex ring would be moved to the AvalonBay Community at Mission Bay later that year because Roe thought the $10,000-per-month complex was \u201cmore luxurious,\u201d the suit states.<\/p>\n

Both apartments were allegedly used as brothels. Roe would station the women at nearby nightclubs and throughout the neighborhood to pick up wealthy men and bring them back to the units he leased under one of his victims\u2019 names, the documents allege.<\/p>\n

\u201cTom Roe would pay his rent in cash, as well as pay the front doormen and security individuals who would then be invited as clients back to the apartments,\u201d the filing claims.<\/p>\n

The doormen would allegedly allow the Johns to walk into the buildings uninterrupted if they were identified as Roe\u2019s clientele \u2014 despite not being residents of the apartments.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The brothel allegedly moved to the AvalonBay Community at Mission Bay because Roe thought the $10,000-per-month complex was \u201cmore luxurious.\u201d GOOGLE<\/p>\n

\u201cOccasionally, the maintenance staff for the Defendants would be present when the trafficking occurred and would witness the commercial sex acts or exchange payments while working inside the unit,\u201d the suit states.<\/p>\n

A.V. was allegedly manipulated and intimidated through drugs and violence \u2014 and was even branded on her inner thigh to identify her as one of Roe\u2019s women, the lawsuit claims.<\/p>\n

Her unique 10-inch tattoo was an \u201cuncorked Rose wine tattoo, which was tilted toward her genitals and splashing its contents toward her genitals,\u201d according to the docs.<\/p>\n

When she didn\u2019t make enough money, Roe and his associates would allegedly beat A.V. and withhold the drugs that he made her dependent on, the suit claims.<\/p>\n

\"A.V.<\/p>\n

A.V. was underage when she was allegedly forced into the sex trafficking ring. Momotarou \u2013 Adobe Stock<\/p>\n

\u201cAt all times, Plaintiff was afraid to leave,\u201d the filing said.<\/p>\n

A.V., now around 25, is accusing the AvalonBay Communities and South Beach Marina Apartments of emotional distress and negligence and requested a jury trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis case seeks to hold accountable the apartment complexes and their respective shareholders, owners, security teams and agents who benefited from the horrors inflicted on Plaintiff,\u201d attorneys with Sbaiti & Co. said in the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Roe was eventually arrested as part of an FBI sting, allowing A.V. to escape, the filing states.<\/p>\n

The FBI could not immediately return inquiries about an arrest or charges fitting the crime from that time.<\/p>\n

Neither apartment complex immediately responded to The Post\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An image collage containing 1 images, Image 1 shows composite photo showing a naked woman in bed and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74206,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[60445,75306,101,103,102,26468,104,106,105,75305,75307],"class_list":{"0":"post-152909","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-apartment-complexes","9":"tag-avalonbay-communities","10":"tag-san-francisco","11":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","12":"tag-san-francisco-news","13":"tag-sex-trafficking","14":"tag-sf","15":"tag-sf-headlines","16":"tag-sf-news","17":"tag-south-beach-marina-apartments","18":"tag-tom-roe"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}