Officers found sex toys, fake fire extinguisher filled with condoms during search of Pocatello massage parlor
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POCATELLO — Three more witnesses were called to testify during the second day of a preliminary hearing for a woman charged with prostitution. Two of those witnesses, officers involved in the investigation and search of the Lucky 7 Massage Parlor, said they found items indicative of a brothel.
Liyun Ma, 43, faces two felonies — procurement of a prostitute and harboring prostitutes. Following the completion of a preliminary hearing that began April 2, Magistrate Judge David Penrod determined there to be sufficient probable cause to justify a jury trial.
During Friday’s hearing, two detectives from the Pocatello Police Department Street Crimes Unit testified to their findings during a search of the building formerly known as the Lucky 7 Massage Parlor.
Detectives Eric Bills and Scott Card testified to finding condoms hidden inside gum containers and a fire extinguisher with a false bottom, as well as an assortment of sex toys in what multiple officers have described as living quarters inside the building.
During the first day of the preliminary hearing — on April 2 — Pocatello police street crimes detectives Matthew Shutes and Dane Eborn testified to their findings. Both described day-to-day operations surveilled at Lucky 7. They said that numerous men were seen entering and exiting the business, but never a woman.
Bills and Card echoed those testimonies Friday, adding additional details about their observations during surveillance.
Card said there was a “reoccurring theme” amongst patrons of the establishment to park their cars — many of which displayed out-of-county license plates — away from the building. He said men would park at the Albertsons’ grocery store down the street or other nearby business, then walk to Lucky 7.
“There were always spots open in the parking lot in front of the establishment,” he said.
Bills said he surveilled Lucky 7 “a couple times a week, at least” for “a couple months” and found men would park elsewhere before walking to the massage parlor. They would then leave an hour or so later.
Both detectives were involved in the service of a search warrant at the establishment.
Bills, who helped clear the building, said upon entry he went into one of the massage rooms, where he found a nude man standing near a massage table. Also inside the room was a woman wearing “some sort of negligee,” which he described as “baby doll-type lingerie.”
The detective added there was what he believed to be a bra and pair of panties on one of the tables, near two separate stacks of cash.
Card, who was tasked with photographing evidence collected at the scene, said officers found “Halloween-ish” “immodest costumes” in what all four officers who testified described as living quarters in the back of the building.
One point of contentions raised by defense attorney J. Scott Andrew was whether his client was in fact the manager of the business and renter of the property.
While cross-examining the detectives, he clarified none of the items related to the prostitution claims — the condoms or sex toys — were found in the room where they found Ma.
Before the officers were called to testify, Kent Rudeen, who owns the property rented to Ma for the Lucky 7 business, was called to the stand.
Rudeen testified his rental agreement was with Liyun Ma, but said his interactions with the person he knew to be Ma was not the defendant in the courtroom.
Rudeen described Ma as both taller and younger than the defendant — he said the woman was around 5’8″ and in her 30s. Finally, he said while she was Asian, she spoke English as though she grew up speaking the language or had been doing so for a long time.
“She seemed very professional,” Rudeen said of the woman who signed the rental agreement.
The defendant, whom Andrew only referred to as “Miss Ma,” is much shorter and speaks very little English. Rudeen said he had previous interactions with the defendant, but knew her by the name “Abby.”
Rudeen said “Abby” was there “pretty much every time I entered the building.”
During direct examination by prosecuting attorney Erin Tognetti, Rudeen said Abby was at Lucky 7 the first of every month, when she paid rent for the building — $2,362, which was paid in cash.
Rudeen said he did not see the “professional” woman he knew to be Liyun Ma again after the first few weeks of reaching the rental agreement.
Asked if he would have rented his property to the woman in the court had the “professional” woman not been involved, Rudeen said he would not, saying that the language barrier between the two would have created an unreliable situation.
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Following witness testimony, Penrod took testimony presented both days into consideration, as well as argument from Andrew.
Andrew claimed that the prosecution had not met the burden of probable cause in presenting evidence Ma was involved in or even aware of any prostitution occurring at Lucky 7.
In response, Tognetti said that guilt beyond reasonable doubt would be determined during trial. For this hearing, she added, Ma having “boxes of condoms” in her car and possessing a laminated sign advertising “girls” as “car interior accessories” showed she was at least “obviously aware” of the illegal activities occurring at her place of business.
Penrod ruled on the side of the prosecution, saying “sufficient evidence has been established” that Ma “caused or at least instigated” the illegal actions at Lucky 7.
He ruled the charges be bound over to District Court.
Though Ma has been charged with these crimes, it does not necessarily mean she committed them. Everyone is presumed innocent until they are proven guilty.
If she is found guilty, Ma could face up to 20 years in prison.
The case will now be assigned to a District Court judge, at which time it will be set for an arraignment hearing.