Masseuse arrested in GN prostitution sting

Dan Glaun

Nassau County Police arrested a Queens woman last week on charges of prostitution and practicing massage without a license following a visit by an undercover officer to a massage facility in the basement of a Great Neck Plaza hair salon.

Jingkun Zhang, 42, of Flushing allegedly massaged and offered to perform a sex act for an additional fee on the undercover officer shortly after noon on Feb. 27, while operating in a basement room subletted from the Bond Street hair salon Joseph & Company.

The massage business was not on the radar of village officials and was operating without a permit from the village, which passed a law in 2011 to crack down on unlicensed massage parlors, Village of Great Neck Plaza Mayor Jean Celender said. 

“This should be a wake up call to the hair and nail salons that if they are going to try to maximize their space in there, they need different tenants to help pay the rent, they need to be sure who they’re putting in there,” Celender said. “It’s not good for the legitimate part of the business. They should be more mindful of who they’re leasing to.”

Joseph & Company owner Joseph Pugliese said he had been subletting the room to the massage business and had no knowledge of any licensing issues or illegal activities.

The village has been working with police on investigations of unlicensed massage operations since passing stricter permit requirements last summer, Celender said. 

About 20 such permits have been issued over the last year and four or five parlors have been shuttered after investigations, Celender said.

“When we find out that there’s something operating, we go and check it out,” she added. “We’ve been working with the narcotics and vice squad of the NCPD, and independently they will get tips.”

But this arrest – in the basement of a salon that has been a neighborhood fixture for decades – came as a surprise to the village.

“I go there for my hair. I’m a client of theirs, I’m kind of surprised,” Celender said.

“Usually they’ll get them for not being licensed, but this is first time they’ve gotten them on prostitution charges [in Great Neck,]” she added.

The NCPD declined to comment on the details of the case, citing the need to avoid tipping off businesses under investigation.

Pugliese, whose salon has served the Great Neck community for decades, said customers for the massage parlor would come in through the front door and head downstairs, but that he never suspected any illegal activity by his tenant. He told the Great Neck News he did not recall his tenant’s last name.

“It will never happen again,” Pugliese said. “I am naive – I never thought this is going on in my place.”

“The best massage places – they close the door, you never know what happens,” he added.

Great Neck Plaza passed a law last June requiring massage businesses to obtain a conditional-use permit from the village after complaints from residents of illegal sexual contact at local parlors.

“Many of them are legitimate licensed massage therapy places,” Celender said. “We passed legislation to make it more stringent.”

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