On June 22, sex trafficking charges were filed against Xia Sun, 42, and Liuping Li, 49, for their alleged involvement in a Montoursville illicit massage business, Jia Yuan Spa, that was shut down last month. Sun, the alleged owner, has been charged with two counts of trafficking in individuals, five counts of promoting prostitution, one count of involuntary servitude, one count of dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities, one count of criminal use of a communication facility, and eleven counts of conspiracy. Li, the alleged manager, has been charged with four counts of trafficking in individuals, two counts of involuntary servitude, one count of dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities, and one count of unlawful conduct regarding documents.
As the CSE Institute previously reported, Montoursville Borough police executed a search warrant on Jia Yuan Spa on May 2 and arrested Li. On May 3, Li was charged with promoting prostitution. On May 7, however, that charge was replaced with ten charges, including five counts of promoting prostitution and one count of criminal use of a communication facility. The charges in that case, which is still active in the Court of Common Pleas, alleged a much deeper involvement in the business’s operation. Li awaits the pre-trial conference in that case, which is scheduled for September 21.
As we previously reported, investigators discovered a second woman upon searching Jia Yuan Spa. That woman was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and it was reported that she could face local charges. It does not appear that the woman detained by ICE after the May 2 raid was Sun, and the June 22 charges are the first that have been filed against Sun in relation to this incident.
According to arrest affidavits, a woman in prostitution at Jia Yuan Spa told investigators that she and other women were held there against their will and were threatened if they attempted to leave or resisted providing sexual services to patrons. According to this survivor, the women, all of whom used fake names and only saw each other when they were rotated into the spa, were instructed to recruit young girls to work at the spa and had their passports and IDs withheld from them. Most of the women did not speak English.
According to borough Deputy Chief Clinton Gardner, Jia Yuan Spa was never licensed and there was no licensed massage therapist within the business. Sun has prior criminal charges for prostitution and operating a spa without a license. Bank employees reported that Sun purportedly made consistent trips to the bank, made cash withdrawals, and wrote checks to alleged shell companies. Neighbors also told investigators that Jia Yuan Spa operated at all hours and they seldom, if ever, saw anyone other than the owner entering or leaving the spa.
Based on investigators’ interviews, it appears that Sun and Li ran this alleged sex trafficking operation and were not at all victimized. This is a crucial point, as the line between victim and offender is often blurred in sex trafficking situations and requires careful investigation into the nuances of an individual’s potential victimization to determine whether to pursue trafficking charges. Victim-offender overlap refers to situations in which victims of sex trafficking are also criminalized for offenses committed during or as a result of their exploitation. Studies have shown that traffickers sometimes force victims into the role of a “bottom girl,” in which victims recruit or manage other victims under coercion, giving rise to this victim-offender position. This overlap is rooted in coercion, survival strategies, and trauma, not voluntary criminality. Understanding the complexity of forced criminality is important because criminalization perpetuates harm and can act as a barrier to a victim’s recovery.
The CSE Institute commends the Lycoming County District Attorney’s Office in their decision not to pursue prostitution charges against the survivors identified in this illicit massage business raid. Furthermore, we applaud Montoursville Borough police for continuing their investigation into Jia Yuan Spa after initially arresting Li. However, we reiterate the importance of holding the sex buyers accountable in this case and encourage law enforcement to investigate the buyerswho were soliciting sexual services from the women in prostitution in these illicit massage businesses. But for the sex buyers who patronize illicit massage businesses, they would not exist in the first place.
The CSE Institute will continue to provide updates on this matter.
All views expressed herein are personal to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law or of Villanova University.