Wednesday, March 26, 2003
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Wednesday, March 26, 2003 |
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3 fined in PTC sex massage parlor bust By JOHN MUNFORD
Working on a tip from Coweta County detectives, an uncovered undercover Peachtree City police officer paid $60 for a massage last summer but instead got a lot more than the traditional rub-down. A scantily-clad Asian woman directed the officer to disrobe and showered him down at VIP Massage Therapy on Ga. Highway 74 north in Peachtree City before beginning the massage, which concentrated at times on the officer's "groin and buttocks" area, Maj. Mike DuPree testified in court Monday. "I asked her if we were supposed to be doing this, but she said, 'Oh, it's okay, it's okay,'" DuPree testified. DuPree said it was obvious the masseuse was trying to "arouse" him with the massage. At one point during the massage, the masseuse took the officer's hand and placed it on her left buttock, DuPree told the court. At the end of the hour-long massage, DuPree said the masseuse offered to perform the sex act for an additional $60, and at that point, DuPree told her he was a police officer and she was under arrest. Fayette County State Court Judge Fletcher Sams convicted the owner and manager of the business after a brief bench trial Monday morning. Sams found Riverdale couple Phouth Van and Rujee Kongngeon guilty of being a party to the crime of masturbation for hire and maintaining a disorderly house. Van also pled guilty to giving a false name and birth date to a police officer and carrying a concealed weapon in his vehicle, a metal pipe. Van, who owned the business, was sentenced to 36 months probation and a $2,000 fine while Kongngeon, who managed the business received 12 months probation and a $1,000 fine. The couple's attorney, Jason S. Monroe, claimed that the person who gave the massage to the officer acted on her own to offer the sex act in exchange for money. "These people had no knowledge of it," Monroe said. Judge Sams disagreed, noting that police also found a bag overflowing with lingerie and a mattress on the floor inside the business. Those items "certainly indicate this was more" than just a massage parlor" and the defendants should have known something was going on by the way the masseuse was dressed at the time, Sams said. "The record shall reflect I have never been to a massage parlor," Sams said, drawing a laugh from court observers. "But through Major DuPree's testimony, I feel like I have." Van claimed those items were left over from the previous owner of the business and that he had only run the shop for a few days before the city shut it down with the arrests. The couple was arrested after an investigation that started with a tip from Coweta County law enforcement authorities, DuPree testified. Since police decided an "older" undercover operative was needed for the sting, DuPree said he was chosen to go undercover and pay for a massage at the "parlor." The woman who actually gave the massage, Ononong Manivong, pled guilty to attempted masturbation for hire, maintaining a disorderly house and giving a massage at a place used for lewdness. Since she cooperated with prosecutors and testified in the case against Van and Kongngeon, she received 12 months probation and a $1,000 fine. Manivong was convicted in New York state in 1997 for prostitution, noted assistant state court solicitor Lura Landis.
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