Massage parlor owner allegedly held worker captive in ‘small room’ to have sex with clients after promising her a job
A Minnesota massage parole owner allegedly locked a worker in a “small room” with no lights and monitored her every movement to pimp her out for sex with clients, court records show.
Ying He, 55, was arrested on Saturday when an officer responded to a “911 call with a screaming female” at Massage Therapy in Willmar, Minn. around 1:30 p.m., according to charges filed Tuesday in Kandiyohi County.
The officer found the “caller” sitting on the floor “crying loudly” inside the business and communicated with her through a translation app on her phone.
The victim, who was not identified in the court documents, claimed that He had hit her in the head, and she felt “dizzy and had a headache.”
She then told the officer He was not letting her “drink water, cook food” and she was confined to a “small room” with no lights, the complaint stated.
The woman was taken to the hospital following the disturbing allegations.
The victim later told police she had traveled from Southern California to Minnesota on March 3 looking for work after she paid an LA agency $100 to find her massage gig that did not involve “sex.”
She purchased a $630 ticket to get to The Gopher State and was promised He would reimburse it.
He allegedly arranged an Uber to pick the victim up from the airport, and upon arriving at Massage Therapy, the owner’s true alleged intentions were revealed.
The massage parlor owner allegedly locked the victim inside the small room upon her arrival and told her she needed to “do whatever the customer wanted her to do.”
[The victim] “clarified that she was told to perform sexual acts on or for the customers,” the complaint states.
“She referred to ‘small job’ and ‘big job.’ Small job meant assisting with hands masturbating the customer. Big job meant having sexual intercourse with the customer.”
He then allegedly monitored the woman’s every movement, including when she was allowed to eat and bathe and was “not allowed to leave the business.”
The victim told investigators that if she fled from the massage parlor, He “would find her and He’s boss in LA was a lawyer for the courts.”
Police returned to the business following the victim’s disturbing allegations against He.
The owner denied hitting the woman or forcing her to live inside the massage parlor, the complaint states.
Surveillance footage observed by the officers showed a male customer walking from one massage room to another while He and the victim were in the hallway.
Seconds later, He ran at the victim and stopped in front of her.
The male customer then “ran out into the hallway in his underwear as though he had heard something, and then went back into the room,” to which He followed him.
The owner then reappeared and walked back toward the victim and was seen punching her on “the right side of her head.”
The victim could be seen getting out her cell phone before falling to the ground.
Police then arrested He searched the business, confiscating a number of items, including several phones and “two sex toys (whips).”
They also performed DNA swabs in the parlor’s rooms.
The owner faces one felony charge of soliciting an individual to practice prostitution and two misdemeanors for operating a disorderly house and fifth-degree assault.
He’s bail was set at $150,000. Her next court appearance is scheduled for March 20.
He is facing up to 20 years in prison if found guilty of the prostitution charge.
