Teen victim of Anton Lazzaro accuses Hotel Ivy staff of helping him traffic her and others

Staff members at the Minneapolis Hotel Ivy played an "integral role" in former Minnesota GOP operative Anton Lazzaro's repeated sex trafficking of teen girls at his luxury downtown condo, according to a new lawsuit filed on behalf of one of Lazzaro's teen victims.

An anonymous "Jane Doe," who was 16 at the time of her trafficking, is the lead plaintiff in a federal civil suit filed this week that accuses the hotel of helping Lazzaro traffic her and four other girls "in plain sight" at Lazzaro's residence.

"This is an industrywide problem that is horrific," attorney Molly Burke said. "This case in particular is a horrific set of facts where the Hotel Ivy enabled a predator that harmed … multiple teenage girls, multiple times."

Burke is representing the victim alongside St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson — a prominent attorney in representing child sex abuse victims who previously filed civil litigation against Lazzaro amid his criminal prosecution.

A federal jury found Lazzaro, now 34, guilty of child sex trafficking last year after a trial that featured emotional testimony from five girls who were between the ages of 15 and 17 when Lazzaro paid them for sex inside his 19th floor condo at the Hotel Ivy Residences in 2020. The businessman was a rising Minnesota Republican operative at the time of his 2021 arrest and gave more than $240,000 to GOP campaigns and political committees, according to state and federal campaign finance committees.

Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz sentenced Lazzaro to 21 years in federal prison, and Lazzaro is being held at the Sandstone Federal Correctional Institution with a 2039 release date.

The complaint names as defendants Heartland Ivy Partners LLC, the Minneapolis-based owner of the Hotel Ivy; Ivy Equity Partners LLC and Wischermann Partners Inc. — which owned the hotel at the time of Lazzaro's crimes but sold the property in 2022. The hotel's current ownership is not part of this litigation.

"Hotel Ivy is aware of the lawsuit, however since the defendants in the case are the former hotel owners and management company who have not been affiliated with the hotel for several years, we have no comment on the case," Hotel Ivy General Manager Mark Maggiotto said in a statement.

Matthew McBride, the attorney representing the defendants, said they plan a vigorous defense.

"Although the scheme Mr. Lazzaro carried out is horrendous, plaintiff's claims against defendants are meritless," he said.

Anderson's firm is accusing all defendants of counts that include "benefiting from a venture that violated the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act," and alleges liability and vicarious liability. Under Minnesota law, the complaint also alleges violations of premises liability and negligence.

The lawsuit relies on testimony from Lazzaro's victims as well as co-defendant Gisela Castro Medina — a young woman who pleaded guilty and testified against Lazzaro, admitting to recruiting young girls for Lazzaro to pay for sex. Castro Medina was sentenced to three years in prison last year.

Anderson and Burke have worked on previous cases involving sex abuse victims of the Minnesota Children's Theater and Catholic clergy in the state. Speaking at a news conference at their St. Paul office Tuesday, both said the case of Hotel Ivy and Lazzaro rival their previous cases "because it's not three decades ago, it is four years ago."

The civil complaint also cites trial testimony from a front desk manager at the Hotel Ivy who testified that Lazzaro's visitors appeared to be "significantly younger" than 19 years old and looked closer to 16 or 17. "Everyone knew" Lazzaro had a "type," the manager told jurors: "White, skinny girls." She testified that when she would see such girls approach her desk, "I can tell like they are coming to him."

The front office manager testified that she and other Hotel Ivy staff were trained to look for signs of sex trafficking and said that it would have been a "red flag" for the front office manager to see three young girls arrive at or leave the Hotel Ivy residences at 1 a.m.

"They knew and they did nothing to protect these girls," Burke said Tuesday. "No staff member intervened. Any intervention would have stopped it and it would have saved these girls from ongoing subjugation of criminal activity. That's why this rivals the scope of something that we saw decades ago because it's happening now and the Hotel Ivy was in a position to save these girls and it didn't do so."

Jane Doe previously testified that Lazzaro would arrange for an Uber to transport her to and from his Hotel Ivy condo, where a doorman would escort her into the hotel. She described being "frequently visibly intoxicated" when she arrived alongside Castro Medina, her friend. They were instructed to give their names to the front desk staff when they asked to see Lazzaro in his condo. Staffers occasionally accompanied Lazzaro's victims from the elevator and delivered them to Lazzaro's front door, according to the lawsuit.

Lazzaro gave Jane Doe alcohol, paid her for sex and frequently bought her and Castro Medina food from McDonald's via a delivery service that also was required to check in with the hotel staff to be able to deliver to Lazzaro's condo.

Lazzaro would later escort the girls to the hotel lobby to wait for a transportation service he arranged to pick them up.

"While in the Hotel Ivy lobby, Plaintiff was noticeably intoxicated, often using Medina for support as Plaintiff struggled to walk due to her intoxication, or even occasionally being carried on Medina's back as Plaintiff struggled to walk due to her intoxication," the lawsuit reads.

According to the lawsuit, Lazzaro told Hotel Ivy staff that the two girls were fine and that they had just been consuming alcohol. Jane Doe testified that she was sex trafficked by Lazzaro "in the same or similar manner on multiple occasions — frequently arriving to, and leaving from, the Hotel Ivy late at night and visibly intoxicated."

The complaint cites testimony from Lazzaro's other four victims, including one girl who visited Lazzaro's condo with her older, adult sister on multiple occasions. The teen victim testified that Lazzaro gave them — and a third minor friend — alcohol and Klonopin and paid for sex acts. She described being kicked out of the room one evening following a dispute, but the staff refused to help retrieve her older sister after she and their father pleaded for assistance and informed the staff of Lazzaro's sex trafficking.

Alison Feigh, director of the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center, said Tuesday that it's very uncommon for sex abuse victims to ask for help – making it all the more important that adults are aware of and will act on warning signs.

"That's why we have policies that put adults in positions of power to do what's right on behalf of kids," Feigh said. "So training is one important piece of the puzzle to prevent, but it doesn't help when those who are trained don't act on behalf of kids."