> Subject: Professional Licensees Front for Prostitution > > Feeling the squeeze, sex trade infiltrates professional shops > By Martin Kasindorf, USA TODAY 11/02 > Raids by vice squads in California cities in the past two years have hit > scores of strip-mall storefronts that display the state license of a > healing professional as a front for illicit sex. In back rooms, the police > find miniskirted "masseuses" practicing unorthodox therapy and funneling > the proceeds to organized crime. > The tip-offs to cops: Customers ask for massages and "very seldom ever ask > for the chiropractor," says Tom Rackleff, a police detective in > Westminster, Calif. Frequently, no legitimate proprietor is on the > premises. Office hours stretch past midnight. Neighbors notice that the > clientele is exclusively male. The johns are responding to > adult-entertainment ads offering "Oriental massage" or touting "curvaceous > seŇoritas." > The practice isn't limited to professionals specializing in relieving > pain. Prostitution rackets also have infiltrated the shops of beauticians, > manicurists and barbers. Tanning salons are another favored haunt. > The trend is most noticeable in California, where prosecutors suspect that > Asian crime figures are the prime organizers. Often, the storefronts > employ women smuggled in from South Korea, "working off their > transportation to the U.S.," says Deborah Sanchez, supervisor of sex crime > trials in the Los Angeles city attorney's office. > But California isn't the only state where professional businesses are > being used as disguises for prostitution or similar crimes. In Hot > Springs, Ark., Robert Balliette, 37, pleaded guilty in March to a charge > of offering sexually explicit activity at a barbershop and tanning salon. > In San Antonio, Raymond Abreu Jr., 32, was convicted in June of running a > prostitution ring at a hair salon and other fronts. In September, three > women who claimed to be doing acupuncture at a strip mall in West > Paterson, N.J., were arrested on morals charges. > The bogus operations worry leaders of the professions that are being > tarnished. > "It's really a shocker," says Jerome McAndrews, a retired chiropractor > from Claremore, Okla., and national spokesman for the American > Chiropractic Association. > Regulators are getting tough. The California acupuncture board has revoked > 18 practitioners' licenses in two years. The chiropractic board has > revoked 22 licenses in that time and has 10 more cases pending. "Board > members want this stopped because it gives chiropractic a really bad name, > a black eye," says Catherine Hayes, the chiropractic board's enforcement > chief. > Contributing to the problem: > * HMO payments for chiropractors' spinal adjustments are declining. > McAndrews blames reduced incomes for subjecting desperate chiropractors > who are "very weak in the ethical area" to temptation. > * California has 15,000 chiropractors, far more than the market can > support, Hayes says. Squeezed by competition, some turn to crime or are > duped by spurious employment interviewers who photocopy and misuse their > licenses and diplomas, she says. > "Chiropractors' offices are not all turning into cathouses," says David > PeŇa president of the Ventura County, Calif., Chiropractic Association. He > says that only a few greedy "renegades" corruptly lend their licenses to > the crime syndicates. > California cities are closing legal loopholes. They forced brothels posing > as massage parlors to close in the 1990s by requiring workers to undergo > police background checks, 500 hours of training and skill tests. The > brothels found new venues because those requirements weren't imposed on > therapists for chiropractors and other state-licensed professionals who > traditionally offer massage as a supplemental service. Cities in Orange > County, including Anaheim and Westminster, have extended their rules to > all massage. > Few chiropractors have been criminally charged with pimping. Their absence > during an undercover bust makes it hard for prosecutors to prove they knew > of prostitution. Local authorities send the cases to the state for license > revocation. > "It doesn't matter if they knew it was going on or not," Hayes says. "If > it's their practice, they hold responsibility." > The sex trade's resourcefulness in trying to stay a step ahead of the law > is no surprise to Philippa Levine, a University of Southern California > specialist in the history of prostitution and sexuality. "There hasn't > been a society that has successfully criminalized prostitution, ever," > Levine says. If the sex workers flee acupuncture clinics, "maybe it'll be > day spas and saunas next." > Criminologist John Lowman of Canada's Simon Fraser University says: > "Trying to legislate out prostitution is like trying to trap a ball of > mercury on a tabletop with the underside of a spoon." >