Ex-cop helped run string of massage parlor brothels in California, feds say
An ex-cop is among four people accused of running five illicit massage parlors for prostitution in California and Arizona, federal authorities said.
The 78-year-old former San Diego vice detective, who left police work in 2002, used his skills and experience to help operate the criminal enterprise, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California said in a news release.
Among other things, he helped the business avoid investigation, conceal evidence and avoid regulatory inspections, prosecutors said.
He’s also a former attorney who used his private investigator license to check up on customers and employees, the release said.
He and three others ran massage parlors in San Diego and Tempe, Arizona, that were fronts for prostitution, prosecutors said.
At one point, he told an employee he was a former cop and warned her not to ”open (her) mouth” about the illicit business, the release said.
When one employee objected to providing sexual services to customers, another of the owners told her to “leave (her) morals in China,” prosecutors said.
“The defendant — a former vice detective who once took an oath to uphold our laws — knew more than most that illicit massage businesses cruelly profit by exploiting women for commercial sex,” Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in the release.
The former detective and thee other owners pleaded guilty Tuesday, April 4, to a laundry list of charges including conspiracy and racketeering, the release said.
They face up to 48 years in prison and $1.75 million in fines, prosecutors said.
“No one is above the law,” San Diego Police Chief David Nisleit said in the release. “I’m appalled that someone who once took an oath to protect our community could prey on the vulnerable.”
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