A massage parlor in Plano has voluntarily closed its doors following claims that the business was a front for prostitution, city officials said.
An investigation into the business activities of the Tennyson Wellness Center at 6541 Preston Rd. and its owner, Diana Zhang, was launched last year after police received multiple reports that massage therapists had touched customers inappropriately and offered sexual favors for money.
In February 2023, one of the center’s employees, Qiaoyu Zhang, was arrested on charges of prostitution. In September, another employee, Tiffany Song, was charged with indecent assault.
“We expect that when we go after them criminally, they’ll stop what they’re doing and become a legitimate business; unfortunately, that did not occur,” Jennifer Chapman, a spokesperson for the Plano Police Department, told NBC 5 DFW in November.
That same month, Plano filed a petition in court to pursue civil action against the establishment. The petition for pre-suit discovery allowed the city to investigate the prostitution claims and decide whether to sue the landlord, owner, employees, or customers.
“We filed the petition because the criminal aspect wasn’t working. We are still going forward with criminal aspects whenever we need to, but we are taking this different approach to see if we can curb and reduce the type of behavior that is occurring at these establishments,” Chapman said, per Fox 4 KDFW.
The Tennyson Wellness Center was located in a business complex that included medical and dental offices and a childcare center, purportedly lending it an air of legitimacy.
“Pretending to operate as a legitimate health-care provider in the midst of other businesses frequented by innocent citizens and children, respondent’s sale of sex acts creates a dangerous environment and public nuisance,” part of the petition read.
Police said in a statement the department was working to “identity and hopefully end sex crimes committed at massage establishments,” per Fox 4.
“We expect that legal actions will be taken against additional massage establishments in the Plano area in the near future,” the department added.
In nearby Dallas, prostitution has been an ongoing problem. So far this year, there have been 90 prostitution offenses reported, according to the City of Dallas crime analytics dashboard. Some of those reports were related to a prostitution sting the Dallas Police Department carried out last month, which led to 30 arrests, as reported by The Dallas Express.
Last year, the City logged 580 prostitution-related offenses.
In October, the Dallas City Council rewrote an ordinance to help police crack down on prostitution, as previously reported by The Dallas Express. However, the Dallas Police Department has been hampered in its efforts to fight crime by a chronic shortage of police officers, fielding only about 3,000 officers. A City-funded analysis shows that a jurisdiction the size of Dallas should have about 4,000 officers.
Downtown Dallas has been particularly hard-hit by crime, regularly logging far more crime than Fort Worth’s city center, which is patrolled by dedicated police units and armed security guards.
