Business linked to two accused of prostitution

BANGOR – Tommy Mooers, an employee at Weber Mortgage on Hammond Street, has seen the young Asian women who sometimes hang out by the door of the discreetly located Asian Therapy Center at the back of 265 Hammond St.

“Once in awhile they stand outside, but they never go anywhere. They never seem to leave. They definitely live there. We’ve never really figured out exactly what goes on there,” Mooers said Thursday during a break outside his office, located next door to the Asian Therapy Center.

Investigators are saying little about the business, though they have acknowledged the connection between it and similar businesses located in Lisbon and South Portland. The Lisbon operation, called Asian Acupressure Therapy, was raided in June and two Korean women were charged, one with promotion of prostitution and the other with engaging in prostitution.

The owner of those two parlors, Lina Gao-Juhl, also is listed as the owner of the Bangor business.The investigations into the southern Maine businesses have been spearheaded by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, formerly known as the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

The alleged prostitution parlors in southern Maine were staffed by illegal immigrants, primarily from Korea, according to court documents. One of the workers at the Lisbon parlor became nervous when asked by police if she could “come and go as she pleased” and admitted the “girls’ movements were somewhat restricted,” the documents stated.Bangor police Chief Donald Winslow refused to acknowledge whether his department or agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement were investigating the Bangor business for similar activity.

“We are aware of the connection between this business and others,” Winslow said Thursday. “That’s about all I can say at this point.”

In Lisbon, police interviewed a young woman who said she was smuggled into the United States via Canada. She said she arrived in Maine from New York by bus and filled out no identity or employment documents. She said she had to pay $40 to $50 a day for rent and was not allowed to tell her customers that she lived at the business.

Customers would pay management $60 for a massage, the girl told police, which included a cleansing shower provided to the men by the workers. Sexual favors also were provided, she said, and the workers received only tips for payment. She further stated that the workers were not allowed to use the telephone, according to a court affidavit.

The Bangor business is located in a newly refurbished white building on Hammond Street. A prayer center and a healing center also are located in the building.

On Thursday, a barefoot, middle-aged Asian woman was on the phone in the lobby of the tastefully decorated office of the Asian Therapy Center in Bangor. The rest of the building was quiet. The woman said her manager was out of town and that she did not understand enough English to answer any questions about the business.

David Lawler, owner of Dave’s Movie Center, located next door, owns the building in which the Asian Therapy Center is located. He was not available on Thursday but a woman behind the counter at the video store, who identified herself as Lawler’s wife and did not want to give her name, said the couple had no comment on the business.

Derek Ellerman, co-executive director of the Polaris Project, a grass-roots anti-trafficking organization located in Washington, D.C., said Thursday that Korean sex-slave rings were located throughout the country, especially in the Northeast.

“I’d certainly be surprised if they were not located in Maine. They are pretty much everywhere,” he said.

Describing the system, Ellerman said young Asian women are either smuggled into the United States or may arrive legally and are enticed by ads promising good pay, airfare and room and board.

“When they arrive at the destination, they are told they have to repay the airfare and room and board and they find out that the job is in a massage parlor. With little to no resources and very limited knowledge of the language, they are pretty much trapped,” he said.

Officials have refused to say whether those are the types of operations being run in Maine.