Woman Claims Prostitutes Assaulted Her At Posh SoBe Hotel

MIAMI BEACH (CBSMiami) – A New Jersey woman filed suit against the owners of the W Hotel on Miami Beach Monday claiming they were jumped and assaulted by a gang of prostitutes outside of the hotel earlier this year.

According to the lawsuit, Anna Burgese said she was walking through the W Hotel's lobby when she "was the subject of a completely unprovoked, sudden, and brutal attack." The lawsuit stated that Burgese was "grabbed from behind and thrown with great force into a stone wall head-first."

The group also attacked Burgese's husband, Joseph, according to the complaint.

The Burgese's lawsuit claimed that the W Hotel is "frequented by prostitutes" and that the hotel, "fosters a prostitute-friendly environment where prostitutes are permitted to market themselves on the premises, as evidenced by, among other things, the reviews left on various travel websites by former guests."

According to the complaint, the Burgeses said Miami Beach Police said the prostitutes may have been under the influence and confused Anna as "competition, i.e., another prostitute who was capturing business at the hotel."

The complaint said hotel staff "knew who the attackers were" and then "claimed ignorance as to the identity of the attackers."

The only thing not mentioned anywhere in the "facts" of the complaint was if/when Miami Beach Police were notified of the alleged attack and any result from that notification.

Starwood Hotels released the following statement on the alleged attack: "We truly regret that this incident occurred and that one of our guests was injured. Because of the pending litigation, we are unable to comment further at this time."