On February 16, 2017 in Berks County, it was reported by WFMZ TV News that Maria Roleda Bey was arrested for prostitution and the business she worked for, Samantha’s Day Spa, was closed. In Pennsylvania, law enforcement may charge a person for prostitution under 18 Pa. C.S.A. § 5902(a) and they may charge a person for patronizing prostitution under 18 Pa. C.S.A. § 5902(e). According to the criminal, Bey has been charged with prostitution and promoting prostitution under sections 18 Pa. C.S.A. § 5902(a)(1) and (b)(1) after she allegedly agreed to exchange sexual acts for payment with undercover officers.
Crimes code section 18 Pa. C.S.A. § 5902(a)(1) provides: “A person is guilty of prostitution if he or she: (1) is an inmate of a house of prostitution or otherwise engages in sexual activity as a business,” and 18 Pa. C.S.A. § 5902(b)(1) states: “A person who knowingly promotes prostitution of another commits a misdemeanor or felony as provided in subsection (c) of this section. The following acts shall, without limitation of the foregoing, constitute promoting prostitution: (1) owning, controlling, managing, supervising or otherwise keeping, alone or in association with others, a house of prostitution or a prostitution business.
The media reported local residents suspected Samantha’s Day Spa was an illegal front for the commercial sex industry. In the video published by WFMZ TV News connection with their news report, Berks County District Attorney, John Adams, stated that he has noticed “a history of these types of businesses (referring to some massage parlors) promoting prostitution in (Berks) County.” Police Chief Madison said he was “pleased about the number of complaints the police department received” from local residents and business owners. Massage parlors and day spas have a proclivity for serving as fronts for commercial sexual exploitation. It is encouraging that businesses and local residents voiced complaints about this particular establishment, noticing that some type of illegal may be occurring on premise. However, the larger question remains, was Bey acting alone or was she a victim in a larger scheme of human trafficking? There have not been any follow up reports to indicate that the Berks County District Attorney’s Office is pursuing an additional investigation into sex trafficking following Bey’s arrest.. The media reports also did not indicate whether four other people who were detained and released as part of the sting were considered sex buyers or additional prostituted persons.
Moreover, the media reports did not specify who owned the day spa, referring to its closure in the passive voice, leading the public to believe the owner(s) of both the Spa and the building are unknown. Again, we ask, should the Spa’s owner(s) have been the targets of the investigation? If Bey is not the spa owner and was merely an employee who performed sexual acts at the direction of the Spa’s owner, perhaps a trafficker, who presumably oversaw this activity, circumstantial evidence exists that indicates Bey may be a victim of human trafficking or sexual exploitation. As we have reported previously, we believe that individuals who have been sexually exploited deserve robust social services and assistance with an exit strategy. Law enforcement should expend their resources targeting those who exploit prostituted persons, by either selling them or buying them for sex.
Sex trafficking and prostitution occurring in broad daylight within what appears to be a massage business simply would not exist if there was not a demand for sex. No one will know the number of people who purchased sex at Samantha’s Day Spa. Presumably, men were consistently seen coming and going from the Spa, and this traffic eventually sent signals to local businesses and residents that prostitution activities may be occurring inside. Maria Bey is charged with prostitution, which means, if she is found guilty, every man who bought sex from her patronized prostitution in violation of the law. Yet, unfortunately, the only story this case tells is that of one woman; a woman was arrested and charged with prostitution.
Berks County recently celebrated a successful prosecution of human trafficking under Pennsylvania’s human trafficking statute, 18 Pa. C.S.A. § 3012. The media reports did state there is an ongoing investigation of this incident, which indicates the Berks County District Attorney may be pursuing a case of human trafficking. The CSE Institute recommends such an investigation to occur because if Samantha’s Day Spa was simply a front for commercial sexual exploitation, then residents will not see a decline in prostitution related activities in their community despite the Spa closing its doors, because, clearly, there are sex buyers in Berks County. If a human trafficking investigation is not conducted, the latest enforcement and prosecution strategy will continue to proliferate commercial sexual exploitation throughout Berks County and the region as prostituted persons are punished, while traffickers and buyers go free.
All views expressed herein are personal to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law or of Villanova University.