The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Cops ask city to help combat prostitution

Massage, tanning salons sit at heart of problem, cops say

By Steve Enders

According to Public Safety officials, prostitution in Sunnyvale is a growing problem, and it's not limited to the streets.

The department asked the City Council last month to consider looking into ways to halt an increasing number of complaints regarding the sale of sexual services at massage, tanning and relaxation establishments.

The City Council put the issue high on its priority list during its December legislative review meeting, meaning it will address the problem this year.

The council will eventually attempt to rewrite what members say is vague wording in the seciton of the municipal code that defines the services that can be provided at these establishments.

Referring to the increase in "relaxation" salons and hot tub and sauna establishments, Sunnyvale Public Safety Capt. Steve Pigott says that the revision is needed because of the increase of adult establishments that sell services that aren't covered by the current massage ordinance.

According to Det. Dave Davis, the city code allows massage salons to offer showers, hot tubs, baths and hot-towel wraps. Massage establishments must be licensed, and many of the places that offer these extra services aren't, he says.

The ordinance, however, doesn't seem to leave much to the imagination, at least for massage shops.

It specifically states that to protect patrons, massage technicians and trainees may not expose themselves or their "private parts."

It further lists the requirements that massage technicians must meet to become licensed. Tanning salons don't need special licenses unless they are going to provide things other than tans, Davis says.

Weekly checks of Sunnyvale's police logs indicate that prostitution arrests are a regular occurrence.

Most arrests made have been on city streets such as El Camino Real, and others have come from area establishments such as massage salons.

Public Safety began its investigations in December 1996 after receiving an anonymous tip that sex was being sold at a certain massage salon.

Since then, Davis says, seven different arrests have been made at four different locations for soliciting prostitution. Two of those locations have since been shut down because the owners were arrested.

Many other citations have been made, he said, for establishments guilty of violating the city code by conducting massages at unlicensed locations.

One recent case charges a woman, Panarat Johnson, with soliciting sex while working at Elite Tanning in Sunnyvale.

Area police have also recently made arrests at salons from Mountain View to Cupertino on charges of selling sex.

Whether Elite gets shut down depends on what a court finds, including whether prostitution was going on and whether the owner knew about any such activity, Pigott says.

In another local case, the Cupertino City Council last week heard arguments from the owner of Prima Skin Care and Spa, who lost her massage license because an employee is said to have solicited sex to an undercover sheriff's deputy.

This is not to say that all massage establishments are doing illegal business. There are plenty of legitimate salons in and around Sunnyvale.

One is Ron Bradford's Fifth Avenue Fitness, which, according to its Yellow Pages advertisement, offers full sports-injury and pain-relief massage.

Bradford says that he gets calls, usually on Friday nights, from people who, he says, "are tanked up and ask for sex."

"Usually they're just looking. They ask where they can go, and I tell them I don't know," he says.

To determine which massage establishments are legitimate, Bradford suggests looking for the word therapeutic in the salon's advertising and asking what kinds of massages are offered and for what price.

A search of the Internet can lead promiscuous Web surfers, as well as investigating police officers, to a number of Web sites, two of which contain information on Sunnyvale and other Bay Area massage establishments that supposedly offer sex.

Internet sites like paranoia.com and smutland.com offer tips and locations on where to pay for sex in the Bay Area. Some massage parlors from Mountain View, Palo Alto, Cupertino and Sunnyvale are on the list.

Venus Eyes Relaxation and Elite Tanning Spa are among the Sunnyvale salons listed on the Internet site.

Employees of Elite Tanning Spa who did not want to be identified said they did not know of the Internet listing.

The workers also said they did not know the identity of the salon's owner. One employee denied knowing Johnson, the spa employee arrested Jan. 7 for solicitation.

Finally, one woman insisted, the spa offers tanning and hot baths only--not prostitution.

A Venus Eyes employee who asked not to be identified said she was surprised to learn her employer was on an Internet prostitution list.

She also said that the shop got in trouble with the police about a year ago, but says she didn't know why.

Sunnyvale Public Safety confirmed that officers had made prostitution arrests at Venus Eyes within the past year.

The owners of both spas were not available for comment.

The Internet sites list more than the names of salons doubling as parlors; detailed descriptions of women and the acts they performed are posted on the bulletin boards of the two Web sites.

One database of prostitution resources even explains the protocol of getting sex from a masseuse.

Police say the Web sites are a valuable resource in their investigations.

Davis says that officers' tactics include going into massage and other establishments in plain clothes and "seeing what happens."

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, January 28, 1998.
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