Northfield Business Busted for Prostitution

Northfield police officers arrested a Chicago woman on July 1 after she allegedly agreed to perform a sex act on an officer while he was undercover. Another Chicago woman was charged with running a house of prostitution.

Fei He, 41, was charged with prostitution while acting as a massage therapist at Elia Wellness Center (1845 Oak St.). The owner, Min Sun, 38, was charged with operating a house of prostitution, which is a misdemeanor. 

"A lot of other villages are having these," said Northfield Police Chief William Lustig. "You shut them down, and they go to another town, so that's what we're seeing across this area."

Lustig said this is the third prostitution bust in Northfield. Two other incidents occurred on Sept. 10, 2010, when police found a woman working from her condo and Nov. 4, 2010, when police made arrests at another office building not far from Elia Wellness. In each case, services were advertised online.

"This activity will not be tolerated, and the police department will continue to aggressively monitor the Internet for these types of advertisements," Lustig wrote in a statement.

In the case of Elia Wellness, the ad that caught the police's attention was on a website called BackPage.com, which featured pictures of attractive women, some scantily clad, and the promise that, "All of our young and good looking masseuses knows (sic) how to treat their customers."

Another ad was listed on EscortDater.com with the headline: 

"Hottest asian perrty [sic] girl doing great body work, can cure all your stress ans [sic] pain after your hard w [sic] (northshort suburbs) [sic]."

A man named Frank Zhu identified himself as He's attorney. The case is set to appear in court on July 20 in Skokie.

"It's a false accusation," Zhu told TribLocal.com yesterday. "We'll find this out in court."

 A woman who called herself Mia Park spoke to TribLocal.com yesterday on behalf of Sun and Elia Wellness, where she said she used to work:

"They never paid. The police never paid anything. If no money was exchanged, they have no proof."

But Chief Lustig said that money did in fact change hands before the arrest was made. Lustig had no further comments, and explained: "I want to be cautious, because it hasn't been to court yet. We're still looking into it."