On January 23, a woman of Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, was found guilty on all charges related to trafficking and sexual exploitation of her 12-year-old daughter. After a three-day trial in Lehigh County, the jury found her guilty of criminal conspiracy to rape a child, trafficking in individuals, sexual exploitation of children, simple assault, and intimidation of a witness. The mother is currently being held in Lehigh County Jail after her bail was revoked and is awaiting sentencing, where she faces 46 to 92 years in state prison. The woman’s name is excluded to protect the victim’s identity.
The woman was initially charged in 2024 after the victim told a trusted adult about the incident. According to investigators, the woman took her 12-year-old daughter to a hotel to meet 31-year-old Joshua Martel in April 2024. The woman accepted $100 and two bags of crystal methamphetamine in exchange for leaving her daughter alone in a hotel room with Martel, who subsequently sexually and physically assaulted her. The victim reported that her mother struck her across the face during an argument after she said she did not want to stay with Martel. The victim also said she attempted to escape the room during the incident, but Martel would not allow her to leave.
The co-defendant, Joshua Martel, plead guilty in July 2025 for his conduct in this case, as well as a separate case involving a 13-year-old victim. Martel was sentenced to 21 to 50 years in prison for rape of a child, trafficking in individuals, and statutory sexual assault.
In addition to her initial charges, the mother was charged with intimidation of a witness while in jail prior to her trial. Despite Lehigh County Children and Youth Services issuing her a no-contact order, the mother contacted the victim through phone calls, her jail-issued tablet, and another inmate’s tablet. In her communications, the woman instructed her daughter to tell authorities that the rape allegations were a lie and to not cooperate so that she could be released from jail.
Under Pennsylvania law, an individual is guilty of trafficking if they recruit, entice, harbor, transport, provide, obtain, advertise, maintain, patronize, or solicit a person who is subject to sexual servitude through the means of force, fraud, or coercion. Because minors cannot legally consent to being bought and sold for sex, the crime of sex trafficking of a child does not require force, fraud, or coercion. The law further requires the exchange of a commercial sex act for “anything of value”, which is established by the woman’s acceptance of cash and methamphetamine. Thus, the woman satisfied all elements of the human trafficking statute.
The parent-child relationship between the trafficker and victim here is unfortunately not uncommon. Nearly half of child trafficking cases are facilitated by family members. Children are already particularly vulnerable to trafficking due to their life inexperience and dependence on adults for basic needs, and family member involvement exacerbates the issue even further. This has devastating impacts on young victims who are being coerced and exploited by individuals whom they rely on and trust to protect them. When a trusted adult is the trafficker, a young victim may feel they have no safe adult to confide in and may not even recognize the abuse as wrong if it has been normalized. Not only does this cause lasting trauma for the victim, but it also makes the trafficking and exploitation difficult to detect. Even when minor victims recognize the issue, it can be extremely difficult for them to report their own family member, especially a parent.
In this case, the woman took advantage of her parental role and her daughter’s vulnerability by trafficking her to an adult man. After she was charged and held in jail, the woman further exploited her daughter’s vulnerability by contacting her and attempting to manipulate her into rescinding her allegations. The woman’s egregious violation of the no-contact order highlights the need for heightened protection of survivors of trafficking, particularly when the trafficker is a family member. The fact that the trafficker in this case had access to the daughter she exploited after the report was made necessitates further measures to mitigate the traumatic effects of familial trafficking for future survivors of this heinous crime.
The CSE Institute applauds the Allentown Police Department and Lehigh County District Attorney’s Office for their efforts in investigating and charging the mother. Most importantly, the CSE Institute commends the bravery of the survivor in this case.
The CSE Institute will continue to provide updates on this matter.
All views expressed herein are personal to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law or of Villanova University.