Prostitution, Disorderly House Charges Filed Against Apple Valley Business Owners

Charges have been filed against Apple Valley business owners whom police accuse of participating in a prostitution operation out of a massage therapy business.

iMassage owner Andy Ming-Lueng Kor, 55, faces a disorderly house charge in Dakota County District Court, according to the criminal complaint.

Yin Hsin Chu, 56, who a criminal complaint says is married to Kor and is co-owner of iMassage, faces two charges, one for prostitution and one for disorderly house.

The prostitution charge is a misdemeanor that carries a maximum penalty of a $1,000 fine, according to the complaint. The disorderly house charges are gross misdemeanors with maximum penalties of up to one year in prison and/or a fine of up to $3,000.

After a report in January of suspicious activity at iMassage in Apple Valley, at 7540 149th St. W. in the Time Square shopping center, police began an investigation, including surveillance and sending an undercover officer to pose as a customer, according to a search warrant application.

A search inventory receipt shows officers searched the building and Kor’s car on Feb. 15.

The business remains open. iMassage opened in October, Apple Valley Police Capt. Mike Marben said.

A receptionist at iMassage said Friday that the owner was on vacation and would return Monday.

According to information from the search warrant application and criminal complaints:

Police took a report of suspicious activity at iMassage on Jan. 19 from a man who went to iMassage for a massage and alleged that the employee began rubbing his genitals. He told police that when he asked her to stop, the massage proceeded normally.

Police on several occasions did daytime and nighttime surveillance on the business and followed Kor, who they determined was the business owner. Police doing the surveillance said they saw only men enter and leave the store as customers, according to the complaint against Kor.

Police allegedly saw Kor arrive and depart with women of Asian descent, who they determined were employees, the application said. On multiple occasions police followed Kor as he allegedly dropped the women off at different locations.

Police also found iMassage listed online as an erotic massage service provider, the application said, where reviews claimed customers had paid for sexual touching at the establishment.

On Feb. 5, another person reported to police that an acquaintance who went to iMassage had allegedly been asked if he wanted oral sex and paid for oral sex and a massage, the application said.

On Feb. 15, an Apple Valley police officer went to iMassage posing as a customer, the application said. He paid for a massage and rubbed the calf of the employee, allegedly Yin, to indicate he was interested in sexual services, according to the criminal complaint.

She began giving him a head and shoulder massage, the application said. She allegedly massaged his buttocks and legs, then applied lotion around his genitals and began massaging them, the application said.

The application said the officer allegedly told her to stop, but did not tell her he was a police officer. She allegedly continued normally with the rest of the massage, the application said.

The Apple Valley Police Department then requested the search warrant from Dakota County District Court.

Officers on Feb. 15 took 43 items from inside the business and Kor’s car, including computers, cash, appointment books, cell phones, IDs, a passport, a massage license and other documents, the inventory receipt shows.

When police entered a massage room, they allegedly found the woman they had identified as Yin giving a man a massage, according to the criminal complaint. The man allegedly was naked and uncovered, the complaint said, and Yin's hand was on his buttocks.

The complaint said Kor told police he opened iMassage because he needed money and alleged that he knew sexual activity was taking place at iMassage.

The investigation comes at a time when city officials have been working to create a massage therapy licensing ordinance, which would require that massage businesses and therapists obtain licenses from the city to work in Apple Valley, and that they pay certain licensing fees.

The city council has heard from massage therapy business owners and therapists concerned with some provisions of the ordinance and licensing fees, and on Thursday elected to continue discussing the ordinance among city officials and business people before voting on it at a future meeting.

The current ordinance draft says massage businesses and therapists would need to obtain a license by April 30, but because the city council hasn’t finalized all the provisions of the ordinance, that date likely will be pushed back, City Clerk Pam Gackstetter said Thursday.

Apple Valley Police Chief Scott Johnson said the city is seeing more instances of prostitution operations existing as storefronts.

"We don't want to see this sort of activity in our community," he said.

"We want to have a tool to prevent that activity from coming into our community," Johnson said. "This ordinance is a tool that the police department needs."

While most massage therapy businesses are "legitimate and needed," he said a law must apply to all businesses in a sector when it comes to requiring licenses.

Marben gave background at Thursday’s city council work session about occurrences of massage-related prostitution in Apple Valley.

In 2006, Apple Valley police began investigating a business that had opened near 142nd Street West and Cedar Avenue, and ultimately one therapist was convicted of prostitution, Marben said.

The business shut down in December 2007 after the property owner pursued an unlawful detainer, he said.

In fall 2008, Lawrence Martin Valencour was charged with several counts of criminal sexual conduct for acts he committed while working as a massage therapist at an Apple Valley business. This month, he was on six counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct.

In March last year, police responded to a report that employees at a business that had been open since September 2008 had been assaulted, Marben said. An investigation showed they were “transient” workers who had come to Minnesota from China through California to work at what was presented as a massage therapy business, a “theme” police were beginning to notice, he said.

Last year, police also received complaints about a business opened on Garden View Drive that presented itself as a massage therapy establishment. The business, whose owners were from California and whose employees were from China, Marben said, was closed in October because of violating a city zoning ordinance.

For more thoughts from city council members and business owners on the subject of the massage therapy licensing ordinance, see Apple Valley Patch's story from , and from the .