Julia Hubbard Lawsuit: Trammell Crow Jr., Defendants, and The Lodge

The Julia Hubbard lawsuit is an active federal civil case filed in November 2022 by Julia Hubbard and Kayla Goedinghaus, alleging they were victims of an interstate sex trafficking operation run by Julia’s ex-husband, Richard “Rick” Hubbard, and financed and enabled by Dallas real estate heir and environmentalist Trammell S. Crow Jr. along with a network of more than two dozen individuals and businesses. The suit invokes the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and is pending in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas in San Antonio, where it remains active as of mid-2026 with no trial date set.¹

Who the Plaintiffs Are and What They Allege

Julia Hubbard was a high-earning dancer at The Lodge, a high-end club in the Dallas area. According to a Cosmopolitan feature published in early 2024, she met Rick Hubbard around 2009 and married him in February 2010. Rick, she alleges, quickly took control of her finances, required her to hand over her cash wages and tips, and steered her into what the lawsuit describes as a coerced “swinger circuit” involving his business associates and investors.²

The alleged abuse was severe. Hubbard says Rick broke her arm, caused internal injuries, choked her, and on at least one occasion pointed a loaded handgun at her head. Goedinghaus, who began a relationship with Rick in late 2018, alleges he choked her on roughly 25 separate occasions. Both women say Rick manipulated them into drug dependency by arranging for physicians and a psychologist to prescribe heavy doses of controlled substances, then threatened to withhold the drugs if they refused to comply with his demands.²

Julia fled in March 2017 after Rick pointed a pistol at her, relocated to Virginia, and underwent a self-managed detox. Years later she encountered Goedinghaus in Texas, recognized that Rick was exploiting her the same way, and the two decided to pursue legal action together. Julia gained full custody of her daughter in 2022 after courts considered Rick’s history of domestic violence.²

The operative pleading is the Second Amended Complaint, which frames the allegations as both a sex and labor trafficking venture and an illegal racketeering enterprise under RICO.³

Trammell Crow Jr., the Lead Defendant

Trammell S. Crow Jr. is the son of legendary Texas developer Trammell Crow and the brother of Republican mega-donor Harlan Crow.⁴ A Yale graduate, he built a career in real estate and international business before turning to environmental philanthropy. He founded EarthX, described as the world’s largest annual environmental expo, which drew 177,000 attendees in 2019, and received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor that same year.⁵

The lawsuit alleges Crow played a key role in financing the trafficking operation and hosted gatherings at his properties that involved drugs, sexual exploitation, and video surveillance of the women.⁶ According to the Cosmopolitan report, Crow’s homes allegedly featured dedicated lingerie rooms stocked with apparel in various sizes for guests, and Rick Hubbard pressured Julia to perform sex acts with Crow’s girlfriend while the two men recorded the encounters.⁷

Crow has forcefully denied the allegations. His attorneys told The Real Deal that “the account of events linking our client to this story is absurd and blatantly false” and expressed confidence that the evidence would vindicate him. In November 2023, Judge Samuel Frederick “Fred” Biery denied Crow’s motion to dismiss, ruling that the plaintiffs’ claims were described with sufficient clarity to proceed.⁴

The Other Defendants

Beyond Crow and Rick Hubbard, the complaint names a wide array of co-defendants who allegedly enabled or participated in the venture:

Benjamin Todd Eller, a psychologist accused of falsely diagnosing the women as seriously mentally ill to justify prescriptions of drugs including Xanax, Adderall, oxycodone, and Ambien, which the plaintiffs say were used to control them. Eller has denied the allegations.⁸
Mrugeshkumar Shah, a physician accused of prescribing controlled substances to Julia Hubbard despite visible signs of abuse, including bruising and frequent injuries. The operative complaint alleges Shah provided “assistance, support and facilitation” to the trafficking venture through his prescribing practices.³
RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc., a publicly traded company that operates adult entertainment venues, named as a corporate defendant.¹
A group of individuals and businesses, including Coe Juracek (identified in reporting as a senior managing director at Crow Holdings Capital), Scott Woods, Case Grover, Melissa Miller, Cody Mitchell, Robert Pruitt, and several LLCs such as Storm Fitness Nutrition and EcoLoft Homes, along with unnamed “Doe” defendants.¹

Several defendants were voluntarily dismissed in January 2024, and others, including Juracek and an individual named Aaron Burlingame, were terminated from the case between 2023 and 2024.⁹ Rick Hubbard, according to the Cosmopolitan report published in January 2024, had not retained an attorney or responded to the lawsuit at that time.²

Where the Case Stands

The lawsuit was originally filed on November 1, 2022 in the Central District of California and transferred to the Western District of Texas in May 2023, where it was assigned to Judge Biery with discovery matters referred to Magistrate Judge Elizabeth S. Chestney.¹

Discovery has been contentious. Crow’s legal team filed multiple motions to compel the plaintiffs to produce documents and respond to interrogatories, and the court granted his first motion to compel in May 2024 and a second in June 2024, warning that continued noncompliance could result in sanctions. A stipulated order in February 2025 required the plaintiffs to supplement their responses, but compliance problems persisted. In June 2025, Magistrate Judge Chestney found that the plaintiffs had failed to meet their discovery obligations and ruled that Crow was entitled to recover attorney’s fees. Crow’s team also sought sanctions related to the possible spoliation of electronic evidence, including a podcast recording and computer data, though the court denied that request without prejudice.¹⁰

On August 29, 2025, the court ordered the plaintiffs and their counsel to pay $11,790 in attorney’s fees to Crow as a discovery sanction, split between two of his law firms. The sanction did not end the litigation. Additional motions to compel, scheduling amendments, and hearings continued through the first half of 2026, and the most recent docket entry, dated June 12, 2026, relates to a hearing schedule. No trial date has been publicly set, and the record does not indicate any settlement.¹¹¹²

A related insurance coverage dispute has also produced a ruling. Shah’s insurer, The Medical Protective Company, sought a declaration that it had no duty to defend him. In January 2026, a court ruled that the insurer does have a duty to defend Shah in the underlying trafficking case, though the question of whether it must ultimately indemnify him was deferred until the main lawsuit concludes.³

A Separate Lawsuit Against The Lodge

Readers should not confuse the main RICO case with a second, separate lawsuit Julia Hubbard filed in February 2025 in the Northern District of Texas against D.C.G. Inc. (doing business as The Lodge), along with individuals Jason E. Money Sr., Dawn Rizos, and Craig Clint Stiff Jr. That case, assigned to Judge Brantley Starr, asserts civil rights and personal injury claims rather than RICO allegations. In September 2025, Judge Starr denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss, allowing the case to proceed. A scheduling order was entered in January 2026, and the case remains active with the most recent filing in June 2026.¹³

1
CourtListener. Julia Hubbard v. Trammell S. Crow, Jr.
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Cosmopolitan. Sex Trafficking Ring Julia Hubbard Kayla Goedinghaus
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CaseMine. Memorandum Opinion and Order, Cause No. 5:23-CV-00580
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The Real Deal. Trammell Crow Jr. to Face Trial Over Sex Trafficking Allegations
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EarthX. Trammell S. Crow
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Bloomberg. Texas Philanthropist Trammell Crow to Face Sex Trafficking Suit
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Longreads. The Venture
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Dallas Express. Trammell Crow Jr. Named in Human Trafficking Case
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CourtListener. Julia Hubbard v. Trammell S. Crow, Jr. – Parties
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Midpage. Julia Hubbard v. Trammell S. Crow, Jr., Order
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CourtListener. Julia Hubbard v. Trammell S. Crow, Jr. – Docket
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GovInfo. Order, Case No. SA-23-CV-00580-FB
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CourtListener. Hubbard v. DCG Inc.