Massage therapists: We need enforcement - Sioux Falls Argus Leader

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Rebecca Herrmann, owner of Royal Table Massage, is concerned that unlicensed operators are giving massage therapists a bad name.(Photo: Elisha Page / Argus Leader)Buy Photo


Rhanda Heller sounded the alarm bells last week.

The licensed massage therapist told the Sioux Falls City Council that unlicensed operators are at work in the city, that their shops can be safe havens for sex-traffickers peddling erotic massage and that the state’s Board of Massage Therapy is an ineffective enforcer.

Such warnings are old hat for Heller, who was critical of the original proposal to license massage therapists in 2005 and is a frequent visitor to and critic of the massage board’s meetings. She believes now that the state licensing program could work but hasn’t been doing its job.

She’s also the only person who calls Lt. Terry Mixell at the Sioux Falls Police Department to report unlicensed operators. Massaging without a license is a crime punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine.

The most troubling issue, she says? The expectations the unlicensed erotic massage parlors create for the potential customers of legitimate practitioners.

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“They are getting phone calls and text messages, they’re getting solicited for sex acts, and it’s quite distressing,” Heller told the City Council last week, before listing off a half-dozen examples of unlicensed parlors being warned, moved or shut down in the past year.

Bubbling beneath the surface of Heller’s concern is a long history of discontent with the massage board, the lack of support for its existence in the first place and the limitations placed on it by a change in the law in 2013 and a U.S. Supreme Court decision on trade issued this March.

The board now passes tips along to local law enforcement because it can no longer inspect without a formal complaint, and it no longer sends “cease and desist” letters to unlicensed practitioners, for fear of lawsuits over anti-trust action.

Heller isn’t the only masseuse in Sioux Falls who worries about that dynamic, although she might be the loudest voice. Julie Pommer has been a vocal supporter of both licensing and strong enforcement.

The human-trafficking angle is what troubles her most. Licensing and legitimacy go hand-in-hand, and a weak license that handles issues on a complaint basis does little to protect women forced into the business of sexual favors.

“Obviously, if you want to put a stop to these injustices, you have to have an authority in place to enforce that,” Pommer said.

City licensing in Sioux Falls, which disappeared after state licensing became the law, was more likely to ferret out unsavory practices, said Rebecca Herrmann of Royal Table Massage.

“When we had city licenses, they kept a closer eye on us,” Herrmann said. “They had the health department and the fire department checking on us every year.”

Local law enforcement deals with issues on a complaint basis

The Board of Massage Therapy has taken a more hands-off approach to enforcement since 2013, when the legislature stripped it of the power to inspect unlicensed operators without a formal complaint.

Since then, the onus of enforcement has fallen on local law enforcement.

There has been some legal action taken. There have been 25 citations for unlicensed massage therapists since the law creating the board was put into place in 2005, nine of which came in fiscal year 2015 and six of which came in fiscal year 2012.

Two of Jamie’s Massage businesses in Sioux Falls were cited in February when police learned that not all the massage therapists had licenses, for example.

In March, deputies in Lincoln County conducted a sting operation at China Massage in Tea, a business Heller said had a particularly suggestive website and an on-call number for after-hours service on its door.

The deputies got massages during the day and later cited Hoi Tran and Hong Kien for practice of massage without a license. Both pleaded guilty this summer.

The most high-profile unlicensed massage incident occurred months before that. Li Li, 45, was charged with prostitution and practicing massage without a license in December 2014 for allegedly offering erotic massages at Happy Dragon in Sioux Falls.

Letters of complaint don’t offer much to work with, according to Minnehaha County State’s Attorney Aaron McGowan. Complaints generally contain incomplete information, he said, no arrest takes place, and there is no affidavit in support of arrest from a certified law enforcement officer – all necessary parts of building a criminal case provable beyond a reasonable doubt.

“There have been cases over the years where the investigation was completed by law enforcement where we were able to proceed with formal charges,” McGowan said.

Lt. Mixell has become the contact person for massage complaints, but Mixell admits that when he was first contacted about the issue last year, he wasn’t fully cognizant of law enforcement’s role in enforcing the rules.

When Heller first called him, Mixell said, he referred her to the state board of massage therapy.

“She said, ‘Well, they don’t enforce it,’ ” Mixell said.

Since then, Mixell said, officers with the street crimes division investigate complaints actively, both from calls through citizens such as Heller and through referrals by the board.

In terms of inspections of the sort that took place when the city licensed massage therapists, Mixell said such actions would step outside the realm of law enforcement.

“If a new restaurant opens up, the Sioux Falls Police Department doesn’t go in there and inspect them to see if their food temperatures are right,” Mixell said.

Herrmann, a 15-year business owner in Sioux Falls, doesn’t think enforcement should fall on the shoulders of other therapists.

“I really wish there was something we could do about it,” Herrmann said. “We feel like we’re doing all the legwork.”

Pommer sees licensing and a board strong enough to insure legitimacy as important for practitioners and to those who would spend their money on massage.

People with certain health conditions can be put at risk if they get a massage, she said. A therapist not trained in “contraindications,” as they’re known in the business, might not know the right questions to ask a potential client and cause unintended damage.

“A lot of people don’t want the government regulating, but when you don’t have the government regulating, it’s buyer beware,” Pommer said. “I feel like we need to have some people policing. We’re working on human beings and with human health.”

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People with certain health conditions can be put at risk if they get a massage, she said. A therapist not trained in “contraindications,” as they’re known in the business, might not know the right questions to ask a potential client and cause unintended damage.

“A lot of people don’t want the government regulating, but when you don’t have the government regulating, it’s buyer beware,” Pommer said. “I feel like we need to have some people policing. We’re working on human beings and with human health.”

John Hult is the Reader's Watchdog reporter for Argus Leader Media. Contact him with questions and concerns at 605-331-2301, 605-370-8617. You can tweet him@ArgusJHultor find him on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/ArgusReadersWatchdog

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