Chester spa closed in raid

By DORIS COOK - Staff Writer
Star Beacon

August 29, 2008 12:06 am

— CHESTERLAND — Geauga County sheriff’s deputies and Chester Township police raided and closed the Silver Spa and massage parlor Wednesday, on busy Mayfield Road, where four female empoyees were arrested.
Geauga Sheriff Dan McClelland said investigator Karen Sweet, with Geauga County Prosecutor David Joyce’s office, had conducted a covert surveillance of the businesses at 8386 Mayfield Road, just west of Woodside Drive. “We were trying to gather proof of what was actually going on at the spa,” he said.
The women, all believed to be of Koreans descent, are charged with prostitution and remained in Geauga County jail Thursday, McClelland said.
“We had to get an interpreter into the jail Thursday to question them because none apparently speak English. The raid was conducted by 16 of my deputies and Chester police. The place was ordered boarded up as a nuisance,” the sheriff said.
On Tuesday, deputies conducted traffic stops on seven male customers seen leaving the premises. The men were questioned if more than massage services were given at the spa, the sheriff said. None of the men were detained, it appears.
Complaints were made to township officials and law enforcement officials over the last year or two since the business opened in June 2006, the sheriff said. Armed with a search warrant signed by Geauga County Common Pleas Judge David Fuhry, the prosecutor’s office was granted a temporary restraining order Wednesday to close the business.
Named in the court order as defendants were BC Oasis LLC, along with David A. Gott, Bokyung Min, Song Cha Shelton, three Jane Does, Alfonso Marra, Joanne Marra, Adam Marra, and unnamed officers and other employees or agents of the business. No addresses were listed in the court order.
The sheriff said the investigation would reveal if the women may be victims of human trafficking or actually willing employees at the spa.