Here it is.
Two charged at massage parlors
01:00 AM EST on Wednesday, November 29, 2006
By Gregory Smith
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — An undercover police detective who went into a suspected massage parlor on North Main Street got a bath and a massage that included a masseuse walking on his back — but no offer of sex.
That is what happened Monday afternoon when the city police investigated North Main Street Spa. Detective Anthony Hampton got clean and had his muscles kneaded, and that was enough, the police say, to constitute a violation of law.
Sumi Ray, 53, of 57 Brewster St., was charged with one count of violating a state statute, by operating and managing a massage therapy establishment while knowingly employing an unlicensed therapist and allowing that unlicensed person to perform massage.
That was one of two massage parlors where the police sent an undercover detective Monday. Detective Anthony Hames went to Central Health, 76 Oregon St., where the police allege that a masseuse offered him sex for money, pointing to his genital area and suggesting that she could make him “happy.”
The police have been frustrated in their effort to clamp down on prostitution that occurs indoors, so as an alternative they have taken to looking for license crimes. Only streetwalkers and the people who solicit them can be found guilty of a prostitution-related crime, under a 26-year-old law with a loophole that exempts indoor prostitution.
Mayor David N. Cicilline and the police last year failed to persuade the General Assembly to close the loophole. Police Chief Dean M. Esserman has said they will try again next year.
The local officials contend that brothels are set up to masquerade as massage parlors and that many of the women who work in them are foreign nationals who are being exploited.
“We think that we are going to try again on these two cases” by prosecuting license crimes, Maj. Stephen Campbell said yesterday.
Although the masseuse at Central Health acted as a prostitute, she could not be charged with a crime, he said. If she had made the same offer outside, on the grass or in a minivan, she would have been guilty of soliciting for prostitution, he contended.
A man who was identified as the manager of Central Health, Brian Fontaine, 37, of 20 General St., was charged with the same crime that the police lodged against Ray. It is punishable by a maximum fine of $1,000 and/or 30 days’ imprisonment.
At both locations, according to Campbell, there were women working who are apparently foreign-born and live on the premises.
The North Main Street Spa, at 1185 North Main St., in an office-style storefront across the street from Off-Track Bedding and a Brooks pharmacy, was open for business yesterday. A woman who answered the inner door inside an Asian-style foyer had no comment about the police visit the day before.
On Monday, Ray admitted Hampton to the spa and asked if he had been there before. Hampton said yes. Inside a dimly lit massage room, according to the police, Hampton gave her a marked $100 bill to pay the $60 charge. She told him to get undressed and to cover himself with a towel, which he said he did, and after he received the change from his $100, he was escorted to a sauna room.
After about five minutes in the sauna, a woman called May, who was later identified as Ok Lee, 54, took him to a shower stall and gave him a bath, according to a police report. They then returned to the room where he disrobed and he lay on a padded table for what became a 20-minute massage.
Lee then climbed atop the table, grabbed a metal rod that was hanging from the ceiling, for support, and walked on his back.
After climbing off the table, Hampton said Lee asked, “Was everything good?” and that he responded, “Everything was good. I’ll come back when I have more time.” He then tipped her $40.
The detective went to a prearranged rendezvous with other officers, and then they returned, questioned six women who apparently were working there, and recovered the $100 bill.
Lee was unable to produce a massage therapy license, according to the police, and Ray was arrested.
