WASHINGTON, DC (November 3, 2025) – The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) has released a National Declaration on Survivors’ Right to Anonymity & Safety signed by 92 survivors of sexual abuse and exploitation to express solidarity with Jane Doe, a Nevada sex trafficking survivor.
Doe was seeking justice against several Nevada brothels and a former county commissioner who owns a brothel for sex trafficking her, and against the brothels’ county governments for enabling them. However, a Nevada judge issued a shocking ruling requiring Doe to disclose her identity to the public if she wanted to continue to pursue charges against her abusers, even though the defendants admitted their intent to publicly shame her in the media in their own filings.
“The judge’s unjust ruling denied Jane Doe’s right to proceed using a pseudonym and her right to a protective order. If Doe were to disclose her identity to the public, her very life would be threatened. Sex trafficking survivors are commonly granted pseudonymity when seeking justice against their abusers. This ruling denied Doe justice, and has extensive ramifications for other sex trafficking survivors,” said Christen Price, senior legal counsel, National Center on Sexual Exploitation.
The NCOSE Law Center appealed this ruling to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The National Declaration supports Doe’s pursuit of justice and makes clear that the unjust ruling must be reversed. “When faced with the decision of ‘reveal your name or risk your abuser walking free’ – survivors are forced to make a life-or-death decision. A decision that should be entirely our own. A decision that no court should force a survivor to make,” the Declaration states.
Doe was sex trafficked in legal Nevada brothel prostitution between 2017-2023; having been induced to engage in commercial sex acts through force, fraud, and coercion – including through psychological manipulation, constraints on her movement, and debt. Doe’s lawsuit was filed against four of Nevada’s infamous legal brothels (Chicken Ranch, Desert Rose, Bella’s, Mustang Ranch), and Mustang Ranch brothel owner/former Storey County Commissioner Lance Gilman for sex trafficking her, and against their county governments (Nye, Elko, and Storey Counties), along with Nevada’s Governor Joseph Lombardo and Attorney General Aaron Ford, for facilitating the abuses. The lawsuit asserts the defendants violated the 13th Amendment’s ban on slavery and involuntary servitude and the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.
About National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE)
Founded in 1962, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) is the leading national non-profit organization exposing the links between all forms of sexual exploitation such as child sexual abuse, prostitution, sex trafficking and the public health harms of pornography.
To schedule an interview with NCOSE, please contact press@ncose.com.
