2 days set for lengthy court hearings involving massage parlor suspects - Times-News

[mnews]

Eric Goodell


TWIN FALLS — A judge has scheduled what promises to be a two-day marathon court session for three women and a man charged in August with sex crimes in local massage parlors.


Finding a workable schedule to hold the handful of preliminary hearings wasn’t easy, when an estimated 10 to 13 individuals will testify at each one while the defendants speak Mandarin.


It was a meeting of the minds Friday morning when a judge, deputy prosecutor and defense attorneys gathered to find suitable days to hold the hearings for the individuals, each charged with procurement of commercial sexual activity in Twin Falls.


Lan Wang, Limin Xu, Gaili Xing and Salon Kahn were arrested Aug. 26 when police conducted a sweep of four massage parlors after an investigation involving multiple law enforcement agencies.



Wang



Although it would take much less time for a combined hearing for all the defendants to take place, Judge Benjamin D. Harmer pointed out, defense attorneys said separate hearings would provide a cleaner record of what each suspect is accused of.

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Xu




Salon



Included in the about a dozen witnesses in each of the four cases will be the “johns” who will testify to what they saw when they frequented the massage parlors, said defense attorney Michael Danielson, representing Wang and Xu.


An estimated five to six individuals will testify in more than one case, Danielson said.


It was going to make for some lengthy hearings that will stretch for more than one day.


“We are going to run into a real difficult time to find two days to hear these,” Harmer said, as he questioned whether the hearings needed to be heard separately. After a lengthy pause, he pinpointed Oct. 29 and 30 as two open days.


The women speak Chinese, so a court-approved interpreter will need to be flown into Twin Falls, Harmer said. The court system will make arrangements for an interpreter to be present, Shelli Tubbs, trial court administrator, told the Times-News.


The Idaho Supreme Court’s Language Access Plan dated March 2022 recognizes that the U.S. and Idaho constitutions afford people rights and protections.


“For this reason, the court supports the use of languages other than English when so required,” the plan reads.


Santiago Barrios, language access coordinator for the Idaho Supreme Court, said there are no certified Mandarin interpreters in Idaho so the court will look for one in another state.


The defendants made initial court appearances in August, and bits of each defendant’s stories were revealed.



Xing



Xing told police she found a job in China over the internet so she could support her three children and was taken to the U.S., court records say, and that she didn’t know who her boss was and was rotated out of various massage parlors.


The three women have posted bonds, Wang by putting up $150,000 cash, records say, while Kahn, who told Kershaw he was recruited by one of the women and offered a job, remains in custody on $100,000 bond, records say.






Four individuals being held on felony charges of procurement of commercial sexual activity each have differing stories.


During the investigation into the massage parlors — identified as Perfect Massage, Dragon Massage, Massage 404 and Sunflower Day Spa, all in Twin Falls — court records show, one man police pulled over by police on a traffic stop after leaving one of the establishments on 1286 Addison Ave. E. said he went there a couple of times a month.


The affidavit said the massage parlors charged $60 for an hour-long massage, and customers provided tips from $20 to $100. The customer said the tip was for sex acts.


Twin Falls Prosecuting Attorney Grant Loebs said that investigation into activities at the massage parlors are continuing, and declined to comment whether any patrons of the parlors would face charges.



Sean 'Diddy' Combs is facing 120 more sexual assault lawsuits, which are expected to be filed in New York, Los Angeles, and Miami. These allegations extend over three decades, primarily from the 1990s to the 2010s, and involve both male and female victims, including 25 minors. The ages of the accusers range from 9 to 38 years old at the time of the incidents. The allegations against Combs include sexual assault, sex trafficking, false imprisonment, and coercing prostitution. Many incidents allegedly occurred at parties, music venues, and auditions, where victims were coerced or drugged. Combs has also had his $61.5 million home raided by federal agents, who confirmed the raid was partly to investigate the sex trafficking allegations against him. The rapper has denied all accusations and remains in federal custordy following his arrest on related charges of sex trafficking and racketeering. "Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is a music icon, self-made entrepreneur, loving family man, and proven philanthropist who has spent the last 30 years building an empire, adoring his children, and working to uplift the Black community," said Combs' legal team in a statement. His legal team insists he is innocent, but lawyers representing the victims state they plan to start filing these lawsuits soon.




Eric Goodell reports for the Times-News. Reach him at Eric.goodell@magicvalley.com.

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