Probe of massage parlors continues

June 8, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Just because none of the women working in the massage parlors raided last week sought immediate help from law enforcement and social workers doesn’t mean they won’t eventually do that, a lead officer says.

Cliff Evans, Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation special agent in charge for Northern Ohio, said it’s not necessarily surprising that none of the women asked for help from translators, immigration attorneys, social workers and police officers the day of the raids.

But now that the women, many of them Asian, have met the officers and other personnel and gotten phone numbers to call, they might still do so later on.

Evans compared it to shopping for a car.

“You might not buy one the first day you walk onto the lot,” Evans said.

The phone number at the Youngstown BCI office is 330-884-7555.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said one reason for the raids was to corroborate information obtained over the past year regarding prostitution taking place in the eight parlors in an effort to close the establishments down.

The Warren health department suspended the licenses of the eight parlors the day after the raids. On Thursday, the parlors did appear to be closed, despite one initially refusing to shut down and being cited for operating without a license.

But another goal was to determine whether human trafficking — in the form of women being forced to act in certain ways against their will — was taking place, DeWine said.

Warren Police Chief Tim Bowers said one of the benefits of having BCI head up the raids was that the agency was able to mobilize social workers, translators and immigration attorneys to talk to the women working in the parlors and assure them that help is available to them if they are being victimized.

Evans said officials can help the women gain freedom from anyone detaining them and can help them get home if that’s what they want. The state can’t pay for an airline ticket, but it can help put the women in touch with organizations that might be able to help, Evans said.

It’s a “two-way street,” Evans said of the benefit of having the women contact BCI if they want to talk. Their information could help aid the investigation, and authorities can aid the women if they want it.

BCI agents continue to investigate the businesses, but they don’t know whether any of the women have left Warren as a result of the parlors being shut down, Evans said.