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Spa tries to reopen, gets cited
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
The manager of the Sun Spa, one of the eight massage parlors raided May 30, tried to reopen Monday and received citations from the Warren Health Department on charges related to operating without a license.
Song Westphal, 60, of West Market Street, didn’t appear Wednesday in Warren Municipal Court to answer to the three first-degree misdemeanor charges, but her attorney, Gary Rich, entered a written innocent plea for her.
Her next hearing date has not been set.
The seven other parlors have remained closed since the raids, said Robert Pinti, deputy Warren health commissioner.
Pinti issued letters to all eight parlors May 31 suspending their licenses to operate immediately “pending revocation due to illegal activity.”
The letters said each parlor was entitled to appeal the suspensions to the Warren Health Department at its next meeting, 3 p.m. June 27 at the Warren City Health District, 418 Main Street SW.
Rich, who represents all eight parlors and one other Warren parlor in a civil suit the parlors filed against the city regarding new massage-parlor regulations the city enacted early this year, said Sun Spa reopened because the health department order was not carried out legally.
“The city ordered an immediate suspension, which is against the ordinance,” Rich said Wednesday.
Rich will represent Sun Spa at the June 27 hearing, he said, adding that he has talked with a couple of the other parlors but doesn’t know yet which other ones he’ll represent there.
Rich said Wednesday he believes the Sun Spa is still open.
“I respect the attorney general, but they brought in 60 agents,” Rich said. “If they brought in 60 agents to deal with the drug problem, it could be eradicated. Come on. Where’s the priorities?”
He added that there are other, more-pressing problems that need the resources, such as Warren City Schools being in academic watch and “roads are crumbling.”
Rich said he believes the workers and management of the eight parlors remain in the area.
“They’re all at their homes and not making any money,” he said.
Dan Tierney, a spokesman for Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, said the attorney general’s office had personnel available the day of the raids to offer legal help or shelter to workers in the parlors, but none accepted the help that day or in the days since the raid.
The office remains ready to provide the assistance, Tierney noted.