Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Women arrested at spa for prostitution
The Caln Village Shopping Center on heavily trafficked business Route 30 — the Lincoln Highway — in this suburb looks like anything but a place of ill repute.
It has a bright and shiny Dunkin’ Donuts Shop out front, and a ubiquitous Acme Supermarket as its anchor. A new Vietnamese restaurant just opened up at one end, down the strip from a children’s dentist, a Citizens Bank, and a Playdium birthday gathering spot that advertises “family fun for everyone.”
But until July of this year, the 27-year-old shopping plaza was also home to what law enforcement authorities contend was a house of prostitution, a brothel thinly disguised as a massage spa where men came regularly throughout the day to pay to have sex with women who they said know “how to make things interesting.”
Now, three women are facing preliminary hearings next month on charges on felony and misdemeanor charges, including promoting prostitution and dealing in proceeds of an illegal act.
The trio are all currently free on $10,000 cash bail, and are scheduled to appear before Magisterial District Judge Jeffrey Valocchi of East Caln on Oct. 3.
Charged are Kum Ae Blakey, 69, whose local address is given as the same as the suspected brothel, the Ocean Spa, and who is identified as the “madam” of the establishment; Yuhyeon Choi, 49, of Flushing, N.Y., and Xuehua Yan, 48, also of Flushing, N.Y. All three were apparently living in the property, located at the end of the strip mall close to the busy highway.
The store is now vacant, with a red notice of condemnation from Caln zoning officials taped to its front door. There are some Asianthemed paintings visible in a hallway through the glass and a few potted plants on the floor, but all else that remains of the business is the large “Ocean” sign above the otherwise nondescript storefront.
The trio were arrested during a raid on the property conducted by Caln Police that came at the conclusion to an investigation that began in March 2017. That’s when Detective Sgt. Christine Cusick interviewed her first “customer” of the spa.
Law enforcement authorities said Wednesday that cases of prostitution are rarely prosecuted in Chester County, with as few as five or 10 cases a year filed, if that.
But during a raid on the spa officers came in contact with four men who had come to the spa expecting to pay for sex. One man, who identified himself to police but whose name was not included in the affidavit, was found lying on one of the massage tables.
According to a criminal complaint filed on July 6, the day of the raid, Detective Cusick interviewed a man who told her that he had been paying to have sex with women at the Ocean Spa the previous month. He said that he would go to the spa, meet with an older woman inside he referred to as “the boss,” and ask for a massage at an agreed upon price of $60.
He would then be taken to a shower room, while the older woman assigned a younger “masseuse” to accompany him. The woman watched as he took a shower, and then washed him. They then went to another room, where she gave him a superficial massage that consisted mostly of touching and rubbing while he was naked.
During the encounter, the masseuse, who was dressed provocatively, flirted with the man and allowed him to touch her, according to the affidavit. She then asked if he would like any other services and gave him prices for hand stimulation of his genitals or full intercourse, the document states. He said he paid her $100 for intercourse, plus $60 for the “massage.”
When he was leaving after the first encounter, the man told Cusick according to the complaint, the older woman instructed him to enter the store using a rear door if he returned. He said he did so the next time he went.
A second interview with another man who said he paid for sex at the Ocean Spa occurred in June 2018. The interview was conducted in conjunction with the state Attorney General’s Organized Crime Unit, wrote Caln Investigator Steven Parkinson, who filed the criminal complaint against the three women.
The man said he had been going to such “Asian spas” for 17 years to pay for sex, and had been going to the Ocean Spa on Lincoln Highway for three years. He had paid to have sex with a woman he knew as “Yoyo” as many as 20 times, and with another woman he knew as “Jackie” 15 times. He said he paid as much as $200 for a house fee and sexual intercourse, and had gone there as recently as May.
Investigating the Ocean Spa on social media, Parkinson was able to read “reviews” of the business that included a description from a person who said they “got my money’s worth with Yoyo.” In another review, a second person describes in vulgar terms having sex with a woman at the spa. “She really knows how to make things interesting,” the reviewer wrote.
Parkinson conducted surveillance of the property on July 2 and 3, watching as various men approached the spa from its rear door, went inside, and exited about one hour later. One man had parked on the opposite side of the strip mall, and walked to his car from the spa at the rear of the stores. A check of the man’s license plate showed he lived in Phoenixville.
Parkinson said that he also watched as the spa closed for the night and women left the building to grocery shop at the nearby Acme. When the spa was raided on July 6, in addition to about $4,000 in cash and a bag of 100 condoms, police found makeshift beds and drawers full of clothing, indicating that the women had been living there in violation of zoning codes.
No information could be found to identify how to reach owners of the shopping center to inquire if they knew about the arrests.