Cops bust massage parlor on neighbors' tips - Wicked Local Watertown

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Last week, Watertown Police raided a suspected brothel during a sex sting on Mount Auburn Street in Watertown. The resulting fallout has some neighboring residents speaking out about the building; it’s zoning and questioning why it took so long to uncover the Herbal Massage’s other illicit services.


On Monday, Nov. 2, the Watertown Police Detective Division conducted a sting operation at Herbal Massage arresting one woman.


According to the police, the investigation began as a result of numerous complaints and tips from concerned citizens.


During the raid, He Chun Ma, an employee of Herbal Massage located at 195 Mount Auburn St. Watertown, was arrested and charged with sexual conduct for a fee.


Ma is 43, and resides at 132-20 Sanford Ave., Flushing, NY.


Watertown Police Lt. Michael Lawn said there have been no other incidents or arrests at Herbal Massage, located at 195 Mt. Auburn Street.


According to town tax documents there is a massage parlor at 195 Mt. Auburn St. called TCM Rejuvenation Center.


In a February 2015 letter to Zoning Enforcement Letter officer Michael Mena regarding parking permits, the property owner, former Town Council President Clyde Younger, referred to the business as AZ Acupuncture.


“We have numerous massage parlors in Town and have made arrests over the years at different locations,” Lt. Lawn said. “We received a couple of neighborhood complaints as well as some anonymous complaints of illegal activity going on here thus conducted the sting.”


Almost three years ago, Watertown Police arrested three massage parlor employees on charges of offering to engage in sexual conduct in exchange for money.


That time, police busted two businesses, Watertown Massage at on Main Street, and Zen Massage on Mount Auburn Street.


The Building


According to Town Planner Steve Magoon, the property is owned Younger and is zoned for Single Family Conversion, which allows residential uses, but doesn’t allow the commercial uses.


“There currently are some permitted non-conforming commercial uses that exist, and we have a proposal before the boards that would reduce the number of existing nonconforming uses, and change one,” Magoon said in an email this week.


According to Magoon, the Zoning Board of Appeals will review the proposal on Nov. 18. The property is located in the Mount Auburn Street Historic District and over the years it’s gone through a number of changes.


In 1957, the property owners received a variance to change the home into a funeral home. In 1996, the owners petitioned to change the funeral home into a commercial/office use building and an apartment with 10 parking spaces where 12 would be required by zoning.


In 1998, a Special Permit Finding Amendment was granted allowing an expansion of the commercial/office use in the basement with 10 parking spaces.


Page 2 of 3 - Over the last year, Younger has petitioned several parking plans to bring in compliance with parking rules from 1998, none of which have been accepted.


On Oct. 21, Younger presented a new plan to the ZBA, calling for a Pilates studio (in place of the massage parlor) while retaining the residential unit and a real estate office. Both would be located on the first floor of the building, according to the application.


The Neighbors


With the bust at the historic home, some neighbors on Franklin Street and beyond have started speaking out about the building, the businesses inside and the zoning rules in the area.


Urit (she preferred to only use her first name) is a neighbor of the unit at 195 Mt. Auburn Street and said she’s made complaints regarding the activity coming from the ‘massage parlor’ for four of the six years she’s lived nearby on Franklin Street.


“That’s not the only problem,” she said. “This is a residential neighborhood and as a result, there’s no trash service for the businesses.”


Instead, she said, all of the tenants put their commercial garbage into the residential toters.


Urit said she’s found used condoms on the sidewalk, witnessed a man without pants on dart into the street and seen a number of men coming in and out of the massage & acupuncture business many evenings past the close of business at 9 p.m.


Stacy, another neighbor on Franklin Street, also wished to remain semi-anonymous and echoed Urit’s claims.


“I’ve been here for about two years and I’m a smoker so I’m constantly outside, sometimes late walking around the neighborhood,” she said. “I’ve watched men go in and out of that place. I’ve seen young girls exit a maroon van, always the maroon van, many times and enter the house.”


“I get worried. I have a 22-year-old daughter and it just makes me sick to see something like that,” she said. “I think it’s great that they shut it down but as of today the light in the office was still on.”


“There are times when it’s been just the red ‘open’ but late at night, the blue circle light around the ‘open’ goes on and off for half hour at a time,” she added.


A resident who lives nearby to 195 Mt. Auburn Street, who wished to remain completely anonymous, said the massage parlor has been problematic for many years. The man said he has lived in the area for 10 years.


Page 3 of 3 - “We’ve lodged numerous complaint to the police, but seemingly no action until recently,” he said. “The police have an anonymous tip line, where I described the situation over a year ago.”


“It's open late at night, well after normal business hours,” he added. “I have frequently saw men parking on Franklin Street at night and going into and out of the massage parlor.”


Jonathan Bloch, who lives with Urit on Franklin Street, said issues have been piling up and the raid is just the last straw for some residents including himself.


“It’s a mess, there’s medical waste sometimes from the acupuncturist which is a health issue, there’s no proper trash barrels for the businesses and I’m sure it’s just technicalities but their breaking the rules,”


Bloch said he lodged a formal complaint regarding the zoning violations about two weeks ago. They included complaints regarding not enough parking, outdated permit information, non-historic signage and the size of the rental units.


On a call to Clyde Younger on Wednesday night, he said that he’d met with the owner of Herbal Massage and was told, “the woman arrested last week was not properly vetted.”


Younger replied to a follow up email requesting further information by declining further comment.


“Due to the extreme stress that I have undergone the past year with the neighbors, I may say something inappropriate or out of line,” he said. Please understand that my response requires legal advice. On a holiday, it is impossible for me to contact him this evening. This issue is much more complicated than a simple response for your newspaper.”


Late on Wednesday, Rena Baskin, who lives nearby said she was glad some action was taken, but dismayed that it takes so long for action on citizens' concerns about this and related issues of zoning and law enforcement.


Baskin said she's often seen men get out of cars parked in her neighborhood, and seen them walk around the corner to that office.


"I've heard it said that the best place to hide illegal activity is in plain sight, and that certainly seems to be the case here: A neon sign advertising "OPEN" for Massage at all hours, shining all night for years and years, even after years of complaints," she said. "I think that may have been the last straw for many here. Drug Bust, Marathon bombers, and prostitution.... all in a Single/two family zone.... mostly on one street, in fact."
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