On April 14, a 41-year-old woman from Catasauqua, Pennsylvania was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison for charges related to trafficking and sexual exploitation of her 12-year-old daughter. The woman will also be registered as a sex offender for the rest of her life.
As we previously reported, on January 23, 2026, the woman was found guilty of criminal conspiracy to rape a child, trafficking in individuals, sexual exploitation of children, simple assault, and intimidation of a witness. The charges state that she brought her 12-year-old daughter to a hotel and left her alone in a hotel room with 31-year-old Joshua Martel in exchange for $100 and two bags of methamphetamine. Martel sexually and physically assaulted the victim in the hotel room, not allowing her to leave. In July 2025, Martel pled guilty for his actions in both this case and another case involving a 13-year-old victim, and he was sentenced to 21 to 50 years in state prison.
The woman has continually denied all responsibility for the crimes she was convicted of. She even contacted the victim several times while in jail awaiting trial, pressuring the victim to tell authorities that she lied about the allegations so that the woman could be released.
The sentencing of this woman illustrates how commercial sexual exploitation of children implicates more individuals than just the person who committed the assault. The gravity of the mother’s conduct is underscored by the fact that she received a longer sentence than Martel, despite his sentence involving two different sexual assault incidents involving minor victims. While the longer sentence may be due to Martel’s guilty plea and the woman’s repeated denial of responsibility, it exemplifies that traffickers are just as responsible as those who facilitate the abuse.
By accepting money and drugs in exchange for bringing her daughter to the hotel room, the mother played a key role in enabling the victim’s abuse. Although Martel committed the assault, the woman directly facilitated it, profited from it, and later attempted to conceal it. The woman’s role as the child victim’s mother makes this case especially disturbing. Not only is it repugnant for anyone to traffic a child, but the crime is particularly heinous when the trafficker is the victim’s own mother, who has a duty to protect her child.
The CSE Institute applauds Chief Deputy District Attorney Sara A. Moyer, Allentown Police detectives, and Lehigh County investigators for their dedication to holding all individuals involved in this incident accountable.
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 Villanova University.