Saratoga News

Code officials target Saratoga massage parlor for 'violations'

Business license hearing is scheduled for July 11

Location has a history

By Sarah Lombardo

A massage parlor in Saratoga may be giving customers more than just a rubdown, according to city officials looking to revoke the establishment's business license at a hearing before the City Council July 11. City code-enforcement officials charge that employees of Relaxation Time, located at 12361 Saratoga-Sunnyvale Rd., violated conditions in its business-license agreement with the city.

"They had a circumstance there that the [Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department] was involved in that violated the agreement," Paula Reeves, city code-enforcement officer, said. Reeves would not comment specifically on the violations, but said they were "mostly pertaining to hours of operation and clothing and behavior of the massage therapists."

According to the Sheriff's Department, no criminal charges have been filed.

Conditions in the agreement with the city state that employees are not allowed to wear revealing clothing, must wear badges with their names and photographs and may not serve a customer in any cubicle, room or area capable of being locked. The agreement also states that a log with customers' names, addresses, hour of arrival and room assignment must be maintained, and that hours of operation shall be 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week. City attorney Mike Riback said the city had reason to think that Relaxation Time broke the law.

"We believe an event occurred on the premises that violates state law, and because it violates state law, it violates city ordinances," he said. When asked which state law was violated, Riback said, "The violation was outside of the realm of massage service."

A former Relaxation Time customer, who spoke to the Saratoga News on condition of anonymity, said he believes he was offered sex during a session at Relaxation Time. Although the masseuse didn't speak to him, the man said she made a motion with her hand indicating money and winked at him.

"It was obvious what she meant," he said.

Relaxation Time is not the first massage business to go before the City Council. Riback said a massage business at the same location as Relaxation Time called Salon Perfect was shut down about three years ago for illegal activity. As a result, the city drafted its current conditions for massage establishment permits. Riback said that about 90 days after Salon Perfect was closed, another massage parlor--with different owners, different employees and the new conditions--was granted a permit and opened its doors. That business, he said, was eventually sold to the owners of Relaxation Time

Records show that a fictitious business name statement was filed for Relaxation Time with Santa Clara County by Romona Ligons on April 10, 1996. Six days later, another name statement was filed for the same name and location by Ly Nguyen. Both Nguyen and Ligons list San Jose addresses.

Two massage parlors on Big Basin Way were shut down in 1987 in the wake of a sheriff's investigation alleging the businesses, Mimosa's Beauty Salon and Sherri's Salon and Body Care, served as fronts for prostitution. The manager of Sherri's was later arrested by county deputies on charges of running a house of prostitution.

Thomas Steel, an attorney for Relaxation Time, did not return repeated messages from the Saratoga News.

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