OXFORD – A woman who had managed a prostitution house on Fairlawn Avenue under the guise of a massage parlor several years ago was sentenced in 2013 in Worcester Superior Court to three years of probation for her crimes.
Apparently undeterred, Lan Yun Ma, now 49, appears to have picked up and moved her business model more than 1,300 miles south to Vero Beach, Florida, where she has been charged as part of a sting operation that led to charges against Patriots owner Robert Kraft, allegedly one of Ma’s customers.
Kraft was reportedly observed twice on hidden camera patronizing the business
Oxford Police Chief Anthony P. Saad, who recently assisted the town's Board of Health in crafting stricter rules for unregulated massage parlors years after police investigated Ma, suggested a more encompassing investigative effort is needed to thwart massage parlors from offering sex for money.
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Otherwise, Saad said, it could be a case of kicking the can down the road.
Oxford appeared to do so, to Vero Beach, Florida, in the case of Ma.
A 2011 to 2012 investigation of her massage parlor in Oxford by state and local police concluded that she had forced women into sexual servitude.
Troopers assigned to both the state police special services section and detective unit of Worcester began the investigation in December 2011. Oxford police assisted state authorities with a search warrant of the business on Aug. 9, 2012, at which time Ma and an accomplice were charged.
Saad, a sergeant in 2013, recalled the effort that went into conducting the Oxford investigation.
“It takes a lot of time, effort and resources to make these kinds of cases,” he said Tuesday. “It’s something that needs to be attacked on a state and federal level, to really truly address this issue.”
In the Oxford case, Ma's business employed women from Flushing, New York, who had recently immigrated to the United States, according to authorities.
Oxford police had received numerous complaints about sex being offered for money at the establishment, the chief said.
“For the girls involved in the trafficking end of it, it’s horrific,” Saad said. “They’re given promises of coming over to the United State for education or other job opportunities, and then they get placed into this indentured servitude and essentially, once they arrive at these locations, they can’t leave,” he added.
Of his review of the Florida case, Saad said, “The same thing was happening here in the Oxford situation: These girls would arrive, and they’d sleep there. They were not allowed to leave the facility, and that’s their life. This Lan Yun Ma was running the place and would go out and get food and supplies whenever they needed it. But the girls couldn’t do that.”
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To any notion the victims could leave, Saad said: “Let’s face it; when they’re brought over here, their entire life depends on these people that made them the promises. They’re in a strange country, a foreign place. They have no idea where to go, or how to sustain themselves. They depend on (the owners) for housing, shelter, food — you name it. God knows what they’re threatening them with to keep them in the facility. I can only imagine.”
Attempts to find out what happened to the victims from the Oxford case couldn’t immediately be determined. The police report indicated Zion Lutheran Church provided help at the scene and made arrangements for shelter. Reached Tuesday, Pastor Mike Lengel said the incident occurred before his affiliation with the church, and he asserted that no one from the church would be able to speak about it because of confidentiality concerns.
As the recent Florida bust was in the works, Oxford successfully sought to put more teeth into its local rule for massage parlors with an 18-page set of "bodyworks" regulations. The new rule calls for random inspections at least twice per year, not including state inspections or those relative to a complaint, and prohibits engaging in sexual conduct or other criminal activities.
The regulations require all massage businesses to obtain a permit through the board, which has to determine if the applicant is of “suitable character and qualifications.” Under the regulation, anyone who practices would also need a permit from the board.
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By accepting the permit, the owner wouldn’t be allowed to change the physical layout of the business without approval from the board, and it consents to inspection by the board of health, police, fire, and building departments any time practitioners are on the premises.
The police and the Board of Health worked together in forming the new regulations, which Saad said will help authorities determine if workers are sleeping on cots or beds in a business, an indication something is amiss.
Approved by the Board of Health, 2-0, on Feb. 4, the regulations took effect that day but carry a 30-day transition period to give the businesses time to get things in order, according to a draft copy of the board's meeting minutes.
Businesses that have already been approved by the state Board of Registration of Massage Therapy, whom Saad described as “legitimate places” would be exempt from the local rule because the state backing would trump the local rule.
According to the chief, Oxford still has three unregulated massage parlors — Green Tea Bodyworks at 732 Main St.; Sutton Reflexology, which is seeking a name change, at 295 Sutton Ave.; and Tina’s Day Spa at 2 Millbury Blvd. Each business was notified of the new 18-page set of “bodywork” regulations.
According to State House News Service, Attorney General Maura Healey, during her semi-regular “Ask the AG” appearance on WGBH radio, said the allegations against the Patriots owner were “deeply troubling and disturbing.”
Healey, whose office has partnered with the Patriots on a healthy relationship advocacy program called "Game Change: The Patriots Anti-Violence Partnership," said she was confident Florida authorities would do their job.
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She added that a study conducted a few years ago found "9,000 hits per day of people going online in Boston to try to buy sex on the way home [from work]" and more than 20,000 ads either seeking or selling sex are posted online from Massachusetts each month.
"I can tell you as your attorney general, this is an activity that exists in Florida, it exists in Massachusetts, it exists all over this country," she said.