The owners of a shuttered Beaverton strip club will pay a $1.25 million settlement for forcing a then 13-year-old girl who worked at the club into prostitution.
In 2015, the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries brought a civil rights complaint against Stars Cabaret, which still operates a number of other clubs around the state.
Brad Avakian, the state’s labor commissioner, said the settlement is the largest the agency has ever won for a single employee.
“Even more than that, it fairly compensates this young girl for the horrific experience she had being forced into prostitution at the Cabaret," he said.
In addition to prostitution, the victim was made to dance nude at the club.
Avakian said the abuse occurred in 2012. The woman is now 18 years old.
Avakian said the mid-level manager who helped facilitate the teen’s prostitution was criminally prosecuted in Washington County and is in prison.
But until now, Avakian said, the owners of the strip club weren’t held accountable for creating an environment that allowed the abuse to occur.
A judge is expected to rule later this year on a similar case involving 15-year-old girl who also worked at the club.
"The experience of both of these women was just horrific, Avakian said. "For teenagers to be placed in that kind of incredibly dangerous and vulnerable position is terrible."