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Two plead guilty in prostitution case
YOUNGSTOWN
Two defendants in a case involving prostitution at a licensed Austintown massage parlor pleaded guilty Wednesday before Judge Lou A. D’Apolito of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
In both cases, the prosecution recommended probation in exchange for the defendants’ cooperation in an ongoing investigation, and the judge granted the prosecution’s motion to seal their plea agreements from public view because of that investigation.
Unsuk Cho, 64, of Vestal Road, pleaded guilty to money laundering and promoting prostitution.
Richard R. Thompson, 40, of Diehl South Road, Leavittsburg, pleaded guilty to promoting prostitution.
Both will be sentenced at a later date.
The plea hearing for Song A. Westphal, 65, of New Road, was postponed due to her “very serious medical condition,” the judge said.
Westphal was indicted on two counts each of promoting prostitution, money laundering and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.
Cho was indicted on one count each of promoting prostitution, money laundering and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.
Thompson was indicted on one count each of promoting prostitution and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.
The prosecution dropped the engaging charge in the plea agreements for Cho and Thompson.
All the charges in the indictment were felonies.
The indictment said the crimes occurred between June 2013 and November 2015.
The indictment said the enterprise was incorporated in 2013 as 76 Venture Inc. by Grace L. Sciarra, 31, of Leavittsburg, and licensed by Austintown Township to operate as a massage parlor at 5325 76 Drive.
Sciarra was sentenced last August by Judge Maureen A. Sweeney to two years’ probation with 100 hours of community service after she pleaded guilty to one count each of promoting prostitution and money laundering.
Sciarra was charged after an undercover investigation discovered the illegal activities at the parlor during the summer of 2015.
“The operation as a massage establishment was merely pretextual,” since prostitution was the true business of the enterprise, which laundered proceeds from that activity through a corporate checkbook, the indictment said.
Westphal hired the spa employees and prostitutes and handled the enterprise’s business affairs, including paying the bills, the indictment said.
Thompson encouraged Sciarra to establish the enterprise and he “was the transportation director of the prostitutes brought in to the massage parlor business,” the indictment said.
Westphal and Cho controlled the hiring, compensation, scheduling, and in-house food, lodging and supplies for the spa employees and prostitutes, the indictment said.
A Korean language interpreter assisted at the plea hearing and will return for the sentencing hearing.