Massage parlor nets police $160,363
Forfeiture funds come from owner, who pleaded guilty to running a brothel
Wednesday, November 2, 2005
The Ann Arbor Police Department has received $160,363 in forfeiture funds from the owner of a shuttered massage parlor where authorities said acts of prostitution were occurring.
The cash settlement coincided with the sentencing last week of the owner, Yon Cha Durham, 49, of Pittsfield Township. She was sentenced last week in U.S. District Court to nine months in prison.
Durham had pleaded guilty to a charge of running a brothel that employed illegal and legal aliens who were not registered with the government. She owned and managed the Retreat Spa on Boardwalk Drive from 1999 to 2001.
The criminal case stemmed from an undercover investigation by Ann Arbor Police and the FBI into illegal prostitution in five massage parlors in the city. The businesses were closed during a March 2001 raid, and several of the owners and managers have faced criminal charges for their involvement, ranging from racketeering to transporting an individual across state lines for prostitution.
Authorities said the Retreat Spa was regarded as the biggest and most active of the five local establishments.
Police also have seized assets and cash from the owners. The Ann Arbor Police Department received more than 50 percent of the seized money because its Special Investigations Unit handled the bulk of the undercover work on the cases.
The Police Department has received in excess of $400,000 since 2001 from forfeitures, FBI Senior Agent Greg Stejskal said.
Ann Arbor Police Chief Daniel Oates said he is still trying to determine how the recent forfeiture cash will be used. Money previously given to the department from the case helped purchase Taser guns and bulletproof vests for officers and helped pay for a new dispatch center.
Authorities said no new suspected brothels have opened in the Ann Arbor area since the raids more than four years ago.
Stejskal said many of the workers at the brothels, young Asian women, were in a state of indentured servitude.
Forfeiture funds come from owner, who pleaded guilty to running a brothel
Wednesday, November 2, 2005
The Ann Arbor Police Department has received $160,363 in forfeiture funds from the owner of a shuttered massage parlor where authorities said acts of prostitution were occurring.
The cash settlement coincided with the sentencing last week of the owner, Yon Cha Durham, 49, of Pittsfield Township. She was sentenced last week in U.S. District Court to nine months in prison.
Durham had pleaded guilty to a charge of running a brothel that employed illegal and legal aliens who were not registered with the government. She owned and managed the Retreat Spa on Boardwalk Drive from 1999 to 2001.
The criminal case stemmed from an undercover investigation by Ann Arbor Police and the FBI into illegal prostitution in five massage parlors in the city. The businesses were closed during a March 2001 raid, and several of the owners and managers have faced criminal charges for their involvement, ranging from racketeering to transporting an individual across state lines for prostitution.
Authorities said the Retreat Spa was regarded as the biggest and most active of the five local establishments.
Police also have seized assets and cash from the owners. The Ann Arbor Police Department received more than 50 percent of the seized money because its Special Investigations Unit handled the bulk of the undercover work on the cases.
The Police Department has received in excess of $400,000 since 2001 from forfeitures, FBI Senior Agent Greg Stejskal said.
Ann Arbor Police Chief Daniel Oates said he is still trying to determine how the recent forfeiture cash will be used. Money previously given to the department from the case helped purchase Taser guns and bulletproof vests for officers and helped pay for a new dispatch center.
Authorities said no new suspected brothels have opened in the Ann Arbor area since the raids more than four years ago.
Stejskal said many of the workers at the brothels, young Asian women, were in a state of indentured servitude.