Among several people in Norwood, what was going on behind the tinted glass doors at 504 Livingston St. was considered an open secret.
Tucked in a shopping center usually bustling with customers, the Jade Health Spa advertised itself as the “ultimate in beauty treatments and therapeutic massage” with “unparalleled personalized service.”
The spa was briefly closed after two of its female employees were arrested on prostitution charges in 2002. Soon after it reopened a few months later, the chatter began.
“There were a lot of rumors circulating about that place,” said Norwood Mayor Michael Kaplan.
Nearly two weeks ago, the spa was raided again, after undercover agents said they were solicited for sex. Three employees, including an alleged madam, were arrested on prostitution-related charges. The spa remains closed while a judge decides its fate.
The Norwood saga underscores the challenges that law enforcement and government officials face from massage parlors that serve as fronts for prostitution.
There is no state regulatory agency that oversees their operation. Business owners don’t have to obtain state permits to open a salon. Massage therapists don’t need licenses to rub down clients, nor are they required to undergo background checks.
Even legitimate spa workers have called for increased scrutiny, saying that the proliferation of illegal spas is tarnishing the image of their profession.
“Anyone can open up a place and put ‘Spa’ on the door,” said Joyce Fontaine, executive director of the luxury Fountain Spa in Ramsey, a proponent of regulation.
Municipalities across the state began taking matters into their own hands after a series of high-profile police raids a few years ago, including the closure of the infamous Ultima Spa in Lodi.
Among the patrons found at the Ultima Spa when it was raided in 2001 were 21 off-duty police officers. Luke Hoffman, a former FBI informant whose case opened a rift between Bergen County’s previous prosecutor and federal authorities, later admitted in court that patrons at his business could take women into private rooms for sex.
Bergenfield, Clifton, Fairview, Palisades Park and Wayne, among others, began toughening their ordinances, requiring background checks for anyone planning to open a spa or perform massages. They also began requiring workers to undergo strict health evaluations. And they laid out stringent sanitary regulations inside the spas. Some even specified the parts of the body that therapists could and could not touch.
Although the tightened rules certainly have given municipal governments more enforcement power, local officials admit they have done little to prevent illegal parlors from cropping up in their towns.
“I think it’s helpful to ensure that people performing massages have the proper credentials,” said Denville Mayor Gene Feyl, whose Morris County township adopted a massage parlor ordinance two years ago. “But whether it actually deters prostitution is another question.”
Norwood Police Chief Jeffrey Krapels said stronger massage parlor regulations likely would have allowed the borough to shut down the Jade Health Spa sooner. Norwood adopted a massage parlor ordinance two years ago, but the spa – which had already opened – was grandfathered in.
The ordinance “will probably prevent something like this from happening again, because it gives Norwood the teeth to close down illegal massage parlors,” Krapels said. “And we wouldn’t have to go through all these problems we had to go through with this particular one.”
The Jade Spa was allowed to reopen in 2002 after its owners said they were unaware that illegitimate activities were occurring there, Krapels said.
Last November, the state Legislature established a certification process for massage therapists – a policy that was years in the making. Developed by the New Jersey Board of Nursing, the rules were the state’s first attempt at regulating massage therapists.
So far, the state has certified 60 massage therapists, and there are 170 pending applications, said Jeff Lamm, a spokesman for the Division of Consumer Affairs.
But the new law requires certification only for those who want to represent themselves as “massage and body therapists” or “certified somatic therapists.” There are no criminal penalties. If a worker neglects to say he or she is a certified therapist, that person isn’t violating state law.
Assemblymen Peter Barnes and Patrick Diegnan, both D-Middlesex, and Assemblyman Gordon Johnson, D-Englewood, have proposed a bill that would go even further, requiring certification for anyone who performs a massage. The proposal has stalled in the Senate and Assembly because of concerns over its language.
Massage therapists say the bill, as it’s written, identifies all spas as “massage parlors” – a term many legitimate professionals consider derogatory.
Barnes, a retired police director, said that at the very least the proposal would present obstacles for spa owners who want to operate illegally. Johnson, a former Bergen County sheriff, agrees – though he acknowledges there are issues in the bill that need to be ironed out before it can move forward.
“It’s not going to eliminate prostitution,” Johnson said. “But it will create an obstacle that may prevent people from turning spas into brothels.”
Officials of the New Jersey chapter of the American Message Therapy Association said they are open to discussing their concerns over the bill’s language.
“We hope to work together with Barnes so he can accomplish what he wants and we can accomplish what we want,” said Susan Ring, a government relations specialist for the state AMTA.
The AMTA is also lobbying for the state to license massage, somatic and body-work therapists rather than simply issuing certificates.
New York, New Hampshire and Rhode Island license massage therapists, which some believe elevates the profession and weeds out some illegal practices.
“I’m surprised New Jersey doesn’t have it,” said Cheryl Chapman, president of the state AMTA. “It’s such a progressive state, but in this regard it’s so behind.”
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(SIDEBAR, page A01)
Rubdown rundown
A sampling of state regulatory requirements for massage therapy:
New York, license, 1,000 hours training.
Connecticut, license, 500 hours.
Florida, license, 500 hours.
New Jersey, certification, 500 hours.
New Mexico, license, 650 hours.
California, Illinois, Pennsylvania, no state regulation.
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