Nassau Democrats' proposed bill seeks to launch new crackdown on illicit massage spas, impose hefty fines

Nassau Democrats want to fight human trafficking at illicit massage spas with a new measure that would penalize businesses with hefty fines and threaten legal action against property owners.

Nassau could have the strictest enforcement of New York’s $500 million-a-year illicit spa industry if lawmakers pass the bill next month.

The law would require businesses to secure proper state licensing, prove their employees are paid and ban staff from living at the spas or sleeping there overnight. Repeat offenders could face penalties up to $25,000.

Legis. Viviana Russell (D-Westbury) and the Democratic minority caucus introduced the bill this week following Newsday’s investigative series "Sex Next Door." Newsday reported on hundreds of illicit massage spas that reopen mere hours after police raid them. Nassau detectives have arrested more than 400 women working at spas, but not the men who advocates say fuel demand.

“We are seeing more and more that massage parlors are more heavily involved [in trafficking] than actual hotels,” Russell told Newsday. The measure “gives our police, our district attorney’s office and our consumer affairs department teeth to go after the individuals that are partaking in human trafficking.”

The proposed bill amends an existing Nassau law designed to combat sex trafficking in hotels and motels by increasing financial pressure on operators. While the current law imposes fines ranging from $500 to $5,000, the new bill proposes fines anywhere from $1,000 to $10,000 for first-time offenders and up to $25,000 for repeat offenders.

“Before, it was almost like ‘the cost of doing business,’” Russell said. “The fines weren’t enough to make them stop. It was like, ‘OK, I can afford to pay a $500 fine.’ ”

The Nassau Legislature's presiding officer, Howard Kopel (R-Lawrence), who decides whether the bill will be brought for a vote next month, said through a spokeswoman that Republicans were reviewing the proposal.

“We are just beginning to review the details of this proposal and will determine the appropriate next steps as part of the legislative process,” Mary Studdert, a spokeswoman for the Republican majority, wrote in a statement to Newsday.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman declined to say whether he would support the bill. But he issued a statement saying, "Virtually every instance of human trafficking in Nassau County and throughout the region is the product of open borders and illegal migration where women are preyed upon by gangs who bring them into the U.S. and put them into servitude. The Democrats in the legislature pretend that they care about law and order but their support of cashless bail and raise the age [legislation] make it easy for those engaged in human trafficking to pray on vulnerable women and children.”

Suffolk legislators have not said whether they were considering a similar bill.

Paying a debt

For Russell, introducing this bill was deeply personal.

As a victim of child sexual abuse, Russell said she has become particularly sensitive to allegations of sex trafficking. 

Newsday has reported several cases in which women said they were transported in a carpool from Flushing, Queens, and did not know where they were working. Reporters also reviewed Chinese-language websites with job listings asking for women who “can live on-site.”

At a panel discussion last week in Hicksville, Det. Lt. Matthew Landman, who runs the Nassau Police Department's vice squad and oversees massage spa raids, said the “vast majority” of women in Nassau were not being trafficked.

“I’ve been running this unit for almost seven years now. We probably only charged human trafficking, I think two times,” he said.

But Nassau prosecutors, Russell and advocates say women face cultural, fear and language barriers in talking to detectives, and many are paying off immigration debt to spa operators and dangerous traffickers.

Christine Guida, a deputy bureau chief at the Nassau District Attorney's Office who leads the human trafficking unit, said those barriers are so high that prosecutors typically only get one woman each year — if that — to disclose information about what brought them to the spa.

Nassau Democrats are asking the county to create a human trafficking response working group, with legislature-appointed representatives from law enforcement and advocacy groups to make annual recommendations. The proposed bill recommends that fines be used to help human trafficking victims get emergency housing, counseling, transportation, legal support, workforce development and translation services.

Russell also said she was meeting with the Nassau Detectives’ Association to discuss why police were not arresting the men who frequent these spas. Newsday reported last month that Nassau police only arrest women working there and let men go free even after interviewing them about the sexual services they purchased.

“If they’re willingly telling you that they are paying, why are they not being arrested?” Russel said. “It’s illegal.”

The measure does add punishment or levy new fines against customers of the illicit spas, who are rarely prosecuted in Nassau and Suffolk counties. 

First of its kind

Nassau’s proposed bill appears to be the first of its kind in New York. Neither Nassau nor Suffolk has enforced such hefty fines on unlicensed massage operators.

Enforcement of the law would fall on Nassau’s police department and Department of Consumer Affairs, which had 14 investigators as of last year, records show. Landlords with spa businesses facing multiple violations could also face legal action from the Nassau County Attorney’s Office, the proposal says.

“It’s not enough to say, ‘I didn’t know,’ ” Russell said. “If you have a tenant who is repeatedly getting called to court, it’s your responsibility to inquire as to why.”

The licensing process for massage therapists is run by the state Department of Education. At the same panel event last week, Timothy Zike, deputy commissioner of the Town of Oyster Bay Planning Department, said enforcing massage spa licenses fell on state lawmakers, not local officials.

But Russell disagreed. “Licensing is done through New York State. However, enforcement can be done locally,” she said.

In 2013, the Village of Farmingdale passed a law requiring massage businesses to be licensed, with violators facing fines up to $2,500 or 15 days in jail. The City of New Rochelle has a similar law with the same penalties, as does the Town of Greenburgh.

Long Island towns have nuisance codes to penalize property owners who allow conditions or crimes that jeopardize public safety or quality of life. In Huntington, establishments that allow prostitution can be fined up to $15,000 and sentenced up to 15 days in jail for a first offense and up to $25,000, plus 15 days in jail, for additional offenses within five years.

Last December, Suffolk County legislators passed a law to combat sex trafficking at hotels and motels following Newsday’s reporting on 60 sites where sex trafficking or prostitution occurred. The law limits hourly stays and imposes fines up to $10,000. It does not specifically target illicit massage businesses.

Legis. Chad Lennon, a Conservative from Rocky Point who sponsored the Suffolk legislation, did not respond to a call or email asking whether the legislature would consider an amendment similar to Nassau’s.

Suffolk County Clerk Vincent Puleo, a Conservative who has served as the party’s vice chairman, recently announced the shutdown of an unlicensed massage business in the St. James strip mall he owns after Newsday’s coverage.

The party’s chairman, Michael Torres, is the chief deputy clerk in the county clerk’s office.

Newsday found an online ad promoting erotic services and customer reviews describing sexual activity there and observed only male customers patronizing the spa in three separate visits.

In an earlier interview, Puleo said he was at the strip mall three days a week and has known the spa’s owner for 30 years. He said he had not received any complaints about the business and blamed so-called political enemies for tipping off Newsday to allegations of illegal activity at the spa.