A former vice detective with the San Diego Police Department and three co-defendants entered guilty pleas in connection with the operation of illegal massage parlors in Arizona and California that used women as prostitutes while pretending to provide therapeutic massage services.
“The defendant – a former vice detective who once took an oath to uphold our laws – knew more than most that illicit massage businesses cruelly profit by exploiting women for commercial sex,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a Department of Justice press release issued on April 4. “We are committed to prosecuting the proprietors of these illegal businesses, and to shining a light on those places where sexual exploitation and trafficking persist.”
According to court records, between 2013 and August 2022, Peter Griffin, 78, who left the department in 2002, Kyung Sook Hernandez, 58, Yu Hong Tan, 56, and Yoo Jin Ott, 46, owned and operated the Genie Oriental, Felicita, Blue Green, Maple, and Massage W spas in Tempe, Ariz., as well as other spas in the greater San Diego area, the release reports.
As part of the criminal plot, the defendants registered their firms with state agencies, the funds were managed, they advertised commercial sexual services online and hired and recruited women to perform these services, and "benefited financially" from the unlawful businesses, according to the release. The defendants rented several commercial locations to use as storefronts, rented and purchased homes to use as residences for staff members and acquired credit card processing hardware to run the illegal "massage parlors," the release reports.
“Peter Griffin misused the expertise acquired during his time as a vice detective and abused the respect that came with his badge all to ensure that his ‘massage parlors’ operated under the radar for his personal financial gain,” Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said in the release.
Guilty pleas of Griffin and his co-defendants demonstrate the DOJ’s commitment to hold accountable those who profit from crime, particularly crimes that exploit vulnerable populations and abuse the trust that communities place in law enforcement, Polite said.
The collaborative efforts of partners in federal and local law enforcement, the Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California were necessary to gain this plea, he said.
