Massage parlors' Warren lawyer cites case

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

An attorney representing nine massage parlors, challenging parts of Warren’s new massage-parlor ordinance, says he doesn’t believe legal precedent allows cities to restrict the hours of operation for massage parlors.

Atty. Dan Keating cited a 1978 federal-court decision involving the massage-parlor ordinance passed by the city of Columbus as reason for his opinion.

Keating and Atty. Gary Rich filed suit against the city of Warren on Friday, challenging the part of the new ordinance that requires the massage parlors to close between midnight and 6 a.m. and requiring them to pay higher annual licensing fees.

The hours limitation took effect Saturday, said Robert Pinti, Warren’s deputy health commissioner. The fees won’t be due until later in the year.

During a hearing Tuesday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court, Keating offered his opinion to Judge Peter Kontos on hours of operation after Judge Kontos asked Keating to specify whether Keating thought precedent allowed for any limits on hours of operation.

Judge Kontos also asked Keating whether he thought precedent dictated the amount of licensing fees a city could legally enact.

Keating said he would give a thorough answer to both questions in the legal brief he will file with the court by Feb. 28.

But the nearly tenfold increase the city enacted in the ordinance clearly isn’t constitutional and could drive some of the parlors out of business, Keating said. The city increased the annual licensing fee for massage “technicians” from $65 to $640.

Judge Kontos will wait to decide whether to grant a preliminary injunction until after Keating and attorneys for the city file legal briefs through Feb. 28, the judge said.

Greg Hicks, Warren’s law director, meanwhile, told Judge Kontos he believes it can be assumed the city did thorough research when it wrote the new ordinance and that the “hours and fees are reasonably related” to health-and-safety requirements of the city.

Hicks has until Tuesday to file written briefs related to the legal cases Keating has cited. Keating will have until Feb. 28 to respond.

Keating called two witnesses during Tuesday’s hearing — Pinti and Capt. Joe Marhulik, acting Warren police chief, questioning both about whether the city’s massage parlors have ever been cited for breaking laws.

Pinti said two massage parlors were cited for violations in the 12 years he has worked in the health department, but both complied with the citations.

Pinti also said none of the massage parlors ever impeded the health department from conducting unannounced inspections.

Marhulik said he doesn’t know whether any criminal charges have ever been filed against massage parlors in the 26 years he has been with the department, but he had no recollection of any.

Marhulik said he also has no personal knowledge that any human trafficking or prostitution goes on at the parlors.