A former city of Henderson employee is accused of tipping off massage parlors about police raids in return for sexual favors.
One of the massage parlors, 99 Spa, is still open for business, but there's a stop work order here on the door saying they can no longer provide massages.
The manager of 99 Spa has been indicted along with a former Henderson business license officer, Michael Bass. He had been an employee from October 2001 to October 2014. He had an annual salary of $66,970 when he left.
The indictment says between July 2013 and September 2014 Michael Bass was tipping off the manager to upcoming city inspections. It goes on to say in return for those tips, Bass would receive gifts and sexual favors.
The indictment also accuses the manager of the massage parlor of encouraging employees to become prostitutes.
A woman named Ms. Patton at 99 Spa said she didn't understand when asked about the indictment but did say the stop work order was because a former employee who was licensed for massages is gone.
The city of Henderson released a statement on preventing massage parlors from violating its municipal code.
“The City of Henderson has a very strong, proactive regulatory structure in place to prevent massage parlors from violating our municipal code. This includes spot inspections to ensure compliance and swift action against any massage parlor found to be in violation, including financial penalties and the loss of their business license. In 2015, Henderson’s municipal code was updated to tighten the rules that massage parlors must follow. These changes included limiting operating hours and placing additional restrictions on the types of activities allowed and how services are advertised. Each violation of these rules results in a civil penalty and we have seen penalty payments as large as $9,000. Businesses can also have their license to operate revoked. Since our new code was adopted, eight establishments have been permanently closed or have surrendered their license to operate.”
