advertisement

Mt. Prospect struggles with massage parlor rules

Mount Prospect officials are struggling to find a way to separate legitimate massage parlors from those that are fronts for prostitution rings.

“When someone (associated with prostitution) comes for a business license, we kind of already know,” said Village Manager Mike Janonis at Tuesday’s committee meeting. “It’s very obvious. You know, if it walks like a duck. ... We know it’s going to be an issue down the road.” Some options the board discussed Tuesday include having the police department conduct inspections and requiring massage therapists to display their state licenses. The village could also prohibit alcohol and those younger than 18 from working in a massage parlor, and it could require such parlors to close at 10 p.m.

The state already licenses massage therapists, so the only thing the village can do is regulate the business itself. And, often times, when one illegal front is shut down, another one opens in its place with different people offering the same illegal services, police Chief John Dahlberg said.

“They operate in an almost militarylike fashion,” he said. “It’s hard to infiltrate. They use a number of protocols to screen out law enforcement officers.”

Currently, there are 12 massage parlors in Mount Prospect, Janonis said.

In the past few years, police have busted several illegal parlors. The most notorious case involved Alex A. Campbell of Glenview, who is accused of forcing numerous women to work at Day and Night Spa, 940 E. Northwest Highway, extorting their earnings, forcing them to engage in commercial sex acts and harboring them for commercial advantage, according to court records.

Campbell originally was arrested in January 2010 and charged with conspiracy to commit extortion and attempted extortion after he offered to help an employee with her immigration status if she paid him $13,000, authorities said.

In December, a further indictment charged Campbell with sex trafficking of children by force, fraud or coercion; harboring aliens; and concealing his workers’ passports or other government identity with the intent forced labor, according to the charges.

One victim claimed Campbell forced spa workers to tattoo a horseshoe and the numbers 9-17 (reportedly his birthday) on their bodies, according to authorities.

He is being held is federal custody without bond.

Janonis said the next step would be to bring in legitimate massage business owners to discuss the ordinance.

“I don’t expect we will be able to eliminate this,” he said. “We just want to make it more difficult, to give them pause and make it easier to take it down the road.”