SF City Attorney Herrera calls massage parlor a brothel in suit - SFGate

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By Michael Bodley, San Francisco Chronicle

Updated 6:21 pm, Tuesday, February 14, 2017

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Photo: Marilyn Nieves, Getty Image


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A massage parlor in San Francisco’s Financial District was sued Tuesday for allegedly operating a hidden brothel for years, the city attorney said.

A massage parlor in San Francisco’s Financial District was sued Tuesday for allegedly operating a hidden brothel for years, the city attorney said.

Photo: Marilyn Nieves, Getty Image

SF City Attorney Herrera calls massage parlor a brothel in suit


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A customer who posted a Yelp review of a massage parlor in San Francisco’s Financial District in December 2012 hinted that the “code word is boom boom” for a “kinky massage” that the business didn’t advertise over the phone.

More than four years later, City Attorney Dennis Herrera sued the alleged “covert brothel,” otherwise known as Queen’s Health Center in the 300 block of Kearny Street, for “violating an egregious number of local laws” and a state law against prostitution.


In the lawsuit filed Tuesday, Herrera contended that the business has been operating as a brothel since at least April 2010, despite a slew of police investigations and city penalties designed to make its owner stop the illicit operations.

The suit marked the first time in recent history that the city filed a civil action under a violation of a state antiprostitution law to stop the practice, Herrera said in a statement.


“This lawsuit sends a clear message that this type of behavior will not be tolerated,” Herrera said. “It will also deter other would-be brothel owners from exploiting women.”

The suit, which also names a trustee who owned the property, claims Queens Health Service has since 2010 blatantly advertised its illegal sex services on sites such as backpage.com and Craigslist, depicting “scantily clad women in provocative clothing” and playing up the ethnicities of the women customers could choose from.

In a May 2013 inspection, the city Department of Public Health found 10 masseuses wearing lingerie, and during separate undercover operations, workers offered police officers sex on at least three different occasions, the city attorney said.

Queens Health Center also installed security cameras outside the building and a buzzer system for controlled entry to keep investigators away, as well as doorstops inside the massage room to delay inspectors entry, the city attorney said.

The owner, Jie Qin Zhou, did not immediately return a call for comment.

Herrera in his lawsuit is asking the court to close the business for a year, sell its property at auction and bring penalties against the property and business owner.

In the summer of 2016, the Department of Public Health suspended the facility’s massage license for 60 days, but the business reopened and “went right back to exploiting women,” according to the city attorney.


Michael Bodley is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mbodley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @michael_bodley


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