By Clarence Williams
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 28, 2007

D.C. police yesterday shut down what many Glover Park residents considered a longtime nuisance: a massage parlor that authorities said was operating as a house of prostitution.

Investigators raided the Venus Spa at 2352 Wisconsin Ave. NW about 4 p.m. after an undercover officer who entered it was solicited for prostitution, officials said.

"We went in, and it was just a . . . brothel -- a front for prostitution," said Mark Gilkey, the lead detective of the citywide prostitution unit.

Police arrested three women, including Sun Pyong, 59, of New Jersey, who was charged with operating a house of prostitution, a felony. Authorities also charged Lian Shu Cui, 35, of Virginia with solicitation for lewd and immoral purposes and Son Bongsok, 45, also of Virginia, with giving a massage without a license.

Gilkey said the raid is one of about 25 the unit has carried out this year. Police conducted it with the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, which will challenge the licensing of the business, he said.

As police observed the operation yesterday, the establishment was so busy that investigators had a difficult time getting an appointment, Gilkey said.

Police targeted the business, which also advertised under the name Young's Spa, after residents complained to D.C. police officials and D.C. Council member Mary M. Che (D-Ward 3).

Neighborhood leaders welcomed the raid and arrests after years of trying to get the operation, which is in the heart of the commercial district of the Northwest community, shut down.

Advisory Neighborhood Commission member Melissa Lane said that for about five of the six years she has served, her constituents were concerned about who was coming into their neighborhood and whether the business was involved with slave labor or other human rights abuses.

"This has been a perpetual issue for a long time. The community is happy that police were finally able to get in there," Lane said.

Jackie Blumenthal, president of the Glover Park Citizens Association, said an "unsavory element" was brought into the area, where families go for ice cream cones, shop at Whole Foods and dine at restaurants.

"Glover Park is an extremely family friendly neighborhood, and the commercial strip is the center of our life," Blumenthal said. "I think people were concerned about who else was walking those street with us."