A female massage parlor owner has been jailed for allegedly holding a woman captive to sell her for sex.
Ying He, the 55-year-old owner of Message Therapy in Willmar, Minnesota, is now facing felony charges including solicitation or inducement of prostitution.
She also faces serious misdemeanor charges, including operating a disorderly house and fifth-degree assault, after the unnamed woman told police she was locked in a small room at the business and monitored when she was out for several days could eat and bathe.
According to the criminal complaint filed Tuesday, officers were called to the business Saturday at 1:30 p.m. on a report of a woman screaming. They were then waved down by someone outside a neighboring shop, before finding the woman inside.
The complaint recalls her being upset and crying, and speaking to officers through a translation app on her phone.
She said the suspect hit her on the head and did not allow her to drink water, cook food or turn on the lights as she lived in the “locked… small room every day when there was nothing to do,” according to the complaint. complaint. .
Ying He – the 55-year-old owner of Message Therapy in Willmar, Minnesota – is now facing felony charges, including solicitation or inducement of prostitution.
The woman – who was subsequently hospitalized – later told police she had been living at Massage Therapy since March 3.
That was the day she flew from her native California to Minnesota under the pretense that he would give her a job, with investigators learning more about her alleged ordeal during an interview at the hospital.
“She stated that she was working for an agency in Los Angeles looking for massage work,” the complaint details the sit-down. “She paid this agency $100 to find work and specifically asked for legitimate massage work and not ‘sex.'”
The woman then told police that her flight cost $630, and that her new boss told her she would pay half.
When she arrived, he – pictured in a Kandiyohi County police photo – arranged for a taxi to pick her up for the airport, then controlled the woman’s every move.
This included eating and bathing, the officers wrote — adding that the suspect allegedly told her to “do whatever the customer wanted her to do.”
Officials claim this involved sexual acts and intercourse; actions where the woman would be reprimanded and threatened if she refused.
“She was not allowed to leave the business,” the officers wrote, claiming it was on His orders.
“She was threatened that if she left, (he) would find her and (he’s) boss in LA was a lawyer in court.”
She also faces gross misdemeanor charges, including operating a disorderly house and 5th degree assault, after the unnamed woman told police she was locked in a small room at the business and monitored when she could eat for several days and bathe.
Police eventually returned to the company to clamp down on He.
Upon their arrival, He was questioned and denied beating the woman or forcing her to live in the company’s room.
Police then asked her to provide a copy of the video footage to investigators, to which she obliged.
When reviewing video footage of the interaction, they looked for a specific alleged incident the victim had told them about: She was punched twice by He after refusing one of her orders.
The alleged strikes left her feeling dizzy and experiencing headaches, she said, adding that the incident was likely captured on one of the company’s surveillance cameras.
Police wrote that he allegedly closed the video, claiming it malfunctioned when it got to the part they were interested in, which they then proceeded to watch.
In the clip in question he is said to hit the woman twice on the head as she passes him, while at another point a man is shown in his underwear in the hallway.
The victim, police wrote, was struck as she walked to the room where she was supposed to stay.
Police continued to search the business and eventually seized about a dozen items.
The evidence included several phones and sex toy whips, as well as several DNA swabs in the parlor rooms.
He was arrested that day and is charged in Kandiyohi County District Court with one misdemeanor count of soliciting prostitution and two counts of misdemeanor assault.
Unconditional bail was set at $150,000 and her next court appearance was scheduled for March 20.