The Police were busy making day spas safe for manicures again, with raids on 3 of the seedier types raided. The bashful police, according to the Hour, seized “unmentionables” but apparently no johns. Nabbing the customers might prove a quicker way to put these spas out of business, a tactic which resulted in much success back in the dark days of SoNo’s red light strip. From the Hour:
The raided spas were Crystal Spa, at 523 West Ave., Executive Spa, at 178 Connecticut Ave., and Nirvana Relaxation Station, 181 Main St. These are the last of what once was a group of some eight city “spas” — most of which have closed down under police and legal pressure, said Special Services Officer Mark Suda.
All three alleged brothels have been raided before and were targeted Thursday due to “renewed activity” at each location, said Lt. Peter Randall, who heads Special Services. Police are trying to shut down all of the suspected brothels, which they deem nuisances to the community.
Randall said police seized “unmentionables” and undisclosed amounts of cash from each business, as well as a credit card machine from Nirvana that may be used to track the numbers of cards used there and could result in more arrests.
At Crystal Spa, two women were arrested at 2 p.m.: Kyong Suk Kim, 45, of 4239 163rd St., Flushing, N.Y., and Kim Ok Hyun, 52, of 37-02 Price St., Flushing, N.Y.Kim was charged with third-degree promoting prostitution and Hyun was charged with prostitution, according to police records.
One woman, Anh Groton, 53, of 304 Main Ave., Norwalk, was charged at 8:30 p.m. with prostitution for her alleged work at Executive Spa.
And four women were arrested at 10:50 p.m. in the Nirvana raid. Ippun Pyle, 70, of Oahu, Hawaii, and Yong Brown, 50, of 506 Colonial Lane, Killeen, Texas, were charged with permitting prostitution and third-degree promoting prostitution, respectively.
Da Yong Lee, 24, and Hyun Ah Hung, 37, both of 181 Main St., were charged with prostitution.
The women were released on promises to appear in Norwalk Superior Court Dec. 20 and 21, with the exception of Groton, who posted $2,500 bond, and Kyong Kim, who posted $5,000.
Hyun was unable to post $5,000 bond, which was raised to $7,500 in her Friday court arraignment. Judge Burton A. Kaplan set as a condition of her release that she must produce positive proof of identification, and she had not been released as of Friday afternoon, according to court records. She is scheduled to reappear Dec. 18 in court.
Crystal Spa owner Hyea Kim, 48, is in federal custody awaiting sentencing for her role in a human trafficking ring that exploited Korean women as sex slaves. She pleaded guilty Sept. 12 in New York U.S. District Court and is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 3, according to federal court records.
Crystal Spa was among three Norwalk businesses and 20 similar establishments along the East Coast that were raided and temporarily closed by federal law enforcement agencies in August 2006, after a 15-month probe by the FBI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that ended in the arrests of 31 Korean nationals.
source: The Hour, 7 Women charged with prostitution in latest spa sting, by Noelle Frampton, December 15, 2007
