Massage parlor arrests update as FWPD patrols petty vice downtown

FORT WAYNE, Ind. --Last Friday, the Fort Wayne Police Department went out to clean up downtown Fort Wayne.

The operation from 4 p.m to 8 p.m. means it was still light outside when they arrested nine people,  including some aging prostitutes whose mugshots will not be published here, their sorry lives already exposed in local media.

Swinney Park in Fort Wayne, from Google maps. Red marker is where the men were picked up.

Folks caught misdemeanor charges for meth possession, drug dealing, paraphernalia possession, criminal trespass, public nudity and, yes, prostitution. 

Counting all the arrests for these quality-of-life, some might say, petty, crimes during the summer crackdown, comes to 36.

But Tuesday, officers got busy again on the west side of Swinney Park off Jefferson Boulevard.

Mugshots of men from Huntington, Waterloo and Laotto,  besides Fort Wayne, surfaced in an FWPD press release, undoubtedly hugely embarrassing to the men - three aged 60 and another 52 - and their families.

All four were charged with misdemeanor public indecency. 

Swinney Park on the western outskirts of downtown has been notorious for years. Just check out reddit and see what pops up when you type in the park’s name.

Residents will tell you it is rife with same sex hook-ups and that it’s been going on for years. 

But these low level petty criminals inhabit a different world than the two gals arrested in April for prostitution at a couple of the city’s many massage parlors.

Xiongying Tang (left) and Honglan Li

Xiongying Tang, 65, and Honglan Li, 50, got charged with misdemeanor A prostitution the same day, April 16, their respective massage parlors were raided by FWPD Vice & Narcotics

So how are they faring?

With the help of a Mandarin interpreter and a public defender after her attorney, Yih-Chuan Jason Huang, withdrew, Li pleaded guilty July15 to prostitution, according to online court records.

Her probable cause states that after $60 was agreed upon with the undercover officer, she pointed to her mouth to indicate she thought she would be performing oral sex, but the Vice & Narcotics detective corrected her to say it was for a “hand job.” 

The probable cause even goes so far to give a definition of that service.

Li was an employee of M Spa at 2517 Lower Huntington Road, court docs said.

The same day Li pled guilty, Magistrate John Bohdan sentenced her to a suspended sentence of 365 days at the Allen County Jail.

Lucky girl. People can languish in jail for weeks and months, if not years. Court costs totaling $264 were paid that day at the counter, court records show, so even classified as indigent, she came up with the funds to pay.

Tang, who was working at Harmony Massage is fighting her charge, although the probable cause affidavit describes a low down scene where Tang ripped $80 out of the detective’s hand once the two agreed on a “hand job.”

Her initial attorney was also Yih-Chuan Jason Huang, but withdrew as he did for Li. Now it’s an Allen County public defender.

Tang, who has a Cantonese interpreter at taxpayer’s expense, is scheduled to appear in front of Magistrate David LeBeau Aug.14 at 9 a.m.

Court records show a trial setting is scheduled, but that doesn’t mean there will be a trial. It could be a prelude to a plea deal like Ms. Li. 

Online court records don’t mention probation for Li, only “terms and conditions of the suspended sentence.”

My Right Hand, an integral member of our podcast The Probable Cause, says that sounds like “unofficial probation,” as in stay out of trouble for a year.

“She doesn’t have to report anywhere, just no contact with police,” she said. 

It wouldn’t be difficult to imagine these women are right back at it, perhaps in a different location although the sign for Harmony Spa at 918 Woodland Plaza Run is still there.

These illicit massage parlors are all over the city, all over the state, curated by websites such as “rubmaps. 'Where fantasy meets reality'.” 

There you will see 33 massage parlors listed in Fort Wayne, all of them mentioning the businesses are Asian or Chinese run. Included in the information is the phone number, directions, hours, ethnicity, payment, sauna, jacuzzi, semi-truck parking availability and cost per 60 minutes.

One random inclusion is whether or not a “table shower” is offered, but that’s probably not the highest priority for someone looking for a “happy ending,” a term that produces snickers in polite conversation. 

Indiana has 501 massage parlors, according to rubmaps, but an anonymous source who tracks sex trafficking and child pornography says one site is hardly exhaustive. 

Meanwhile, the desultory catch-and-release of the city’s street prostitutes, drunks and drug addicts will be a priority for the police department, and a never ending one. Hard to imagine these folks, some of them homeless, changing their life’s game, particularly at the advanced ages many of them are.

One man, arrested for paraphernalia possession was born in 1948. It’s shocking he’s still alive.

And the men who arrive at dusk and into the night to engage with each other in the woods of Swinney Park will risk public humiliation.

For a brief time, the location for these kinds of hook-ups will likely move to a different location. You can bet social media will post a heads up, at least for a while.