Undercover officer arrests 2 on prostitution at Elkmont spa
Published 11:37 am Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Two employees of the Pine Tree Spa were arrested Tuesday for prostitution after allegedly offering an undercover Limestone County Sheriff’s officer more than a massage.
“We sent an undercover officer into the Pine Tree Spa yesterday afternoon after receiving information that it was not a legitimate spa,” Sheriff Mike Blakely said Wednesday. “He went in and they advised him that for $60 he could get a massage, for a happy ending, it would be $80, for oral sex $140, and for regular sex $240.”
Authorities arrested Myong Cha Grayson, 46, of 415 79th St. S.W., Lawton, Okla., and Elyssee Mae O’Conner, 56, of 140 Twin Oaks Drive, Huntsville, on charges of second-degree promoting prostitution and soliciting prostitution, records show.
Blakely said the undercover sting at the spa, located at 25295 Elkton Road, next to a truck stop, was devised after the department received complaints about illicit sexual activity at the business.
“We had noticed the spa there and that I just, somehow, did not appear right,” the sheriff said. “A couple of people had called and complained about it, so we sent somebody up there and found it was, obviously, a house of ill-repute.”
He said such businesses spring up along major thoroughfares across the U.S. from time to time.
Blakely said he sent a reserve deputy who was not well known in the area. He declined to name the deputy.
The department is still investigating whether the business has a masseuse licensed by the Alabama Board of Massage Therapy.
State law requires that the board license anyone operating or advertising as a massage therapist or offering massage therapy services. The massage therapist must have a minimum of 650 hours from an accredited massage-therapy school and be certified by the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork.