Two massage parlors have been shut down this month in Baldwin County following prostitution-related arrests and business license revocation rulings before the city councils in Foley and Daphne.
The arrests occurred on Sept. 19, and led to raids at Ocean Massage in Foley and Tranquility Massage in Daphne, and follow a long trend of prostitution-related crackdowns at massage parlors throughout Alabama.
“It appears this is a systematic issue,” said Daphne Mayor Dane Haygood following a hearing into the license revocation. “I, quite frankly, find it disturbing and offensive.”
The Foley City Council voted unanimously on Oct. 7, to revoke the business license of Ocean Massage at 8154 Alabama Route 59, Suite 208. Two weeks later, on Monday, the Daphne City Council voted 6-1 to revoke the business license of Tranquility Massage, 27955 U.S. 98 in Daphne.
The owner of both businesses was 49-year-old Sheng Yun Zhou, who faces two counts of felony promoting prostitution. Also arrested were 53-year-old Xiu Xiang Zhang, 52; Ying Shenyang, 50; on charges of misdemeanor prostitution for engaging in alleged illegal sex acts at Ocean Massage. In Daphne, therapist Wei Tong was arrested for prostitution.
According to court records, the Baldwin County District Attorney’s Office is pursuing civil asset forfeiture cases against Zhou and Tong in an effort to seize cash that authorities believe is traceable to prostitution. Court records show that Zhou, who was arrested in her vehicle outside Tranquility Massage in Daphne. Authorities seized $78,441 in cash ($44,000 was found inside her vehicle, $1,224 inside her purse and $33,217 from various locations within the Foley business). Tong was in possession of $2,680 in cash.
‘Responsible for employees’
FILE - In this Jan. 20, 2019, file photo, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft walks on the field before the AFC Championship NFL football game in Kansas City, Mo. Kraft was arrested as part of an illicit massage parlor sting in Florida earlier this year. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)AP
In Daphne, the business license was pulled from Tranquility Massage following a public hearing Monday in which Cullman-based attorney Josh O’Neal requested that an “alternative” action be taken against the business as opposed to shutting it down.
“I do agree that if the business were to stay open, there needs to be more measures of control of things,” said O’Neal.
He compared the massage parlor businesses to hair salons where employees are compensated with tips. He said there are “more opportunities” for a massage therapist to engage in illegal sexual behavior than someone who works at a hair salon, which is a business where stylists work out in the open.
O’Neal said that Zhou’s desire is to “run a legitimate business” in which tips would not be part of a therapists’ compensation.
A majority of the council believed that Zhou, as the business owner, was responsible for the illegal actions of her employees. The only council member voting against the license revocation was Council President Pat Rudicell, who could not be reached for comment.
During Monday’s meeting, Rudicell asked whether there could be a “less substantial penalty” invoked against Tranquility Massage.
Other council members pushed for immediate action against the business.
“To me, we’ve got a situation where an act was committed which was illegal in our municipality,” said Daphne City Councilman Ron Scott. “The fact that the owner was not the person (involved in the alleged prostitution) does not really seem to be germane to our ordinances. They are responsible for their agents and employees.”
Councilwoman Angie Phillips agreed, “This wasn’t one time or one employee.”
The incidences in Foley and Daphne come as high-profile raids of sex spas are taking place across the country, including in Alabama. Publicity about the cases have been heightened in the past year following raids in Florida that led to the arrest of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who police have said was caught on video paying for sex acts, and John Havens, the former president and CEO of Citigroup.
In April, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall issued a temporary restraining order against a chain of four North Alabama massage parlors, and pushed to seize property and money. It was the first civil action taken under a 2018 provision of the state’s human trafficking law.
The injunction applied to Health Massage in Huntsville and Massage Foot Care in Huntsville, Madison and Decatur, and came about after Marshall said the businesses were “fronts for a human-trafficking operation,” though no criminal charges have been filed.
The businesses are operated by Ty Green’s Massage Therapy, owned by Yuping Tang and manager Jio Liu, who is her daughter.
The business fought back in court and, in August, Madison County Circuit Court Judge Alison Austin dissolved the temporary restraining order against them and ruled that Marshall’s office hadn’t exhausted all options before pursuing the legal action.
The case has since moved on to the Alabama Supreme Court, which recently reinstated the temporary restraining order. The case is still ongoing.
Raising awareness
The rash of shutdowns this years also raises awareness of human trafficking enterprises linked to massage parlors. In the Daphne arrest, Police Sgt. Jason Vannoy called Tranquility Massage a “prostitution den” and likened the operation to those that typically “involve an element of human trafficking and present a clear danger to our community and other nearby businesses.”
The Daphne massage parlor was located within a strip mall that is anchored by a Publix grocery store and medical offices near a highly-traveled stretch of U.S. 98.
“Our case involved an undercover officer entering Tranquility Massage and exchanging money for sexual favors,” wrote Vannoy in his request for the council to revoke the business license.
According to Polaris, a nonprofit group that operates the National Human Trafficking Hotline, an estimated 9,000-plus of illicit massage parlors are operating in the U.S., with earnings reaching $2.5 billion a year across the industry.
The businesses, according to Polaris, typically go through a process of registering their businesses as if they were legitimate. The businesses typically dot the sides of highways and are tucked into suburban strip malls or are located next to fast food restaurants and dollar stores throughout America.
Polaris claims that victims of massage parlor trafficking in the U.S. are almost all recent arrivals from China or South Korea, carry debts or are otherwise under financial pressure, speak little or no English, have no more than a high school education and are mothers in their mid-30s to 50s.
Force is rarely an element of massage parlor trafficking. Victims, according to Polaris, are controlled by traffickers through a complex mixture of cultural manipulation, fraud and coercion.
Illicit massage parlors have been present for decades in the U.S., and arrests in Alabama have been common in the past.
Some examples include:
-In 2015, five women were arrested on charges of prostitution following an investigation by the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office into illegal activity at two venues: Ocean Spa, which formerly operated within a strip mall on Airport Boulevard, and Win Span on U.S. 90.
-In 2014, Millbrook police arrested two women on prostitution-related charges at the Royal Therapy Massage. Neither woman had licenses to perform massages.
-In 2012, a Birmingham-based spa was shut down after five people were arrested on prostitution-related charges. The arrests occurred after a long-term investigation at the New Paradise Spa at 9433 Parkway East.