WARREN City law director suggests taping customers of massage parlors

The law director said council cannot enact stricter zoning laws on businesses already operating in the city.
By DENISE DICK
and PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- If residents want massage parlors out of the city, they should sit on the sidewalk and videotape customers going inside, the city's law director said.
Some city council members are renewing their efforts to regulate massage parlors. Seven massage parlors operate in the city, and some council members want to cap it at that number.
Councilwoman Susan E. Hartman, D-7th, and Councilman Robert Holmes III, D-4th, plan a meeting next week on the issue.
Hartman said an attempt to regulate the parlors might be challenged, but, then again, "maybe they won't take us to court."
Some limitations
Greg Hicks, law director, said council cannot enact stricter zoning laws on businesses already operating, and he noted the U.S. Constitution prohibits lawmakers from banning a legitimate business.
"Right now, as far as we know, the Oriental health spas operating in this city are legitimate businesses," Hicks said. "Some people will say that we all know what goes on there, but that will not hold up in a court of law. I need some proof that an illegal act is being committed, and right now I don't have it."
If Cleveland officials were able to drive the establishments out of that city, why can't Warren? Holmes wonders.
"I want to look at legislation where they would have to be licensed massage therapists," he said.
If a grandfather clause excludes those already operating from that provision, Holmes wants to regulate the hours. He suggests limiting massage parlor hours from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and requiring them to be closed Sundays.
"If we can't do that, I want to get a hold of the ministerial association and get a camera out at night in front of them, watching who goes in," Holmes said. "If they won't do it one way, I'll do it another way."
Might work
That may be the best bet. Hicks said if customers know they are being watched entering the facility they will probably quit visiting the establishments.
"If no one goes to the business, which is there to make money, they will have to set up shop somewhere else," Hicks said. "This is probably the most effective way."
Hicks added that the police department officials said they have had no complaints about the health spas.
"If these spas are in fact fronts for prostitution, then we have to have facts," Hicks said. "An undercover police officer will have to go to them and get proof."
Austintown case
That can prove difficult. In February 2000, Austintown police went into the Japanese Sauna on Mahoning Avenue at Four Mile Run Road. An undercover Mahoning County deputy sheriff working with township police went into the sauna, posing as a customer.
Police said a woman at the business made a hand gesture to the deputy, offering to perform a sex act for money. Police charged the woman, who is Asian and didn't speak much English, with solicitation and with not having a license to be a masseuse. Both charges are misdemeanors.
After pleading guilty and being convicted of the charges, the woman left town. The township then tried to close the business based on the conviction, but the effort was thwarted in court.
Attorneys for the business contended that the woman was not an employee but was staying at the business and approached a customer without the permission of the owner. The court ruled that the business could continue to operate.
Three massage parlors continue to operate in Austintown.