In May 2006, Chun Yong Madden brought two women into a massage room and showed them how to pleasure a male client by showering him and washing his genitals. She then took the man to the massage table, where she kneaded his body, touching his private parts.
The two women, both illegal immigrants, allegedly balked at performing the sexual massage for other clients, telling Madden they didn't want to work at her Swan Day Spa, a Berwyn brothel.
Madden, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Korea, later ordered them into her van and threatened to take the two women to police because they were here illegally.
At a traffic light, the two escaped. Madden claimed to West Whiteland Township police that the women stole a ring from her van. Police caught one of the women, Yin Ying Zi, then 40. But they also found the ring in the van.
Zi, Korean by ethnicity and Chinese by nationality, was handed over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents because she was here illegally.
Zi ended up testifying before a federal grand jury during a two-year ICE investigation. The other woman, Jin Hua, who had also come here illegally from China, was never found by authorities.
Yesterday, Madden, 56, who owned and managed the Swan Day Spa in Chester County, bowed her head as she stood in a brown pantsuit and red-checkered spiky heels before U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno at her sentencing hearing.
She pleaded guilty in April last year to one count of conspiracy and to three counts of using an interstate-commerce facility to process credit-card transactions in the operation of the brothel.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Suzanne Ercole asked the judge for a term of imprisonment to deter people from getting involved in the lucrative prostitution trade.
But she also asked for a downward departure from the advisory guideline range of 12 to 18 months in prison. Prosecutors' sentencing memorandum said Madden has been cooperating "in the investigation of others."
Robreno sentenced Madden to seven months in prison, followed by three years' supervised release. He allowed her to surrender in 45 days so she can attend her son's college graduation in early May. She was also ordered to pay a $4,000 fine.
Madden was one of three defendants charged in the feds' July 2008 indictment. Her boyfriend, John "Jack" Evans, 64, with whom Madden lives on Beale Drive in Parkesburg, Chester County, faced just one count - conspiracy in operating the brothel. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years' probation.
Evans, Madden, and her federal defender, Mark Wilson, declined comment yesterday.
The third defendant, William "Bill" Strunk, had first owned the Swan spa on Lancaster Avenue and hired Madden to manage day-to-day operations. He then sold it to Madden in 2007. The feds contended the three conspired in operating the brothel from April 2005 to January 2008, earning $226,464 in prostitution services.
Felony offenses against Strunk were later dismissed by the feds, who instead charged him with a misdemeanor count of employing an illegal immigrant. Strunk, 69, who has been living in Las Vegas, Nev., pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years' probation.
The feds had charged Madden with two counts of attempted forced labor, but those charges were dismissed. Ercole said after yesterday's hearing that the charges were "not fully supported by the evidence."
In her testimony before a federal grand jury, parts of which were made public in court documents,Zi said her friend, Hua, told her she could make more money by working at a massage parlor in Pennsylvania. That's how the two ended up at Swan spa on May 4, 2006. It was the next day when Madden taught them how to bathe and massage a naked male client and when Zi and Hua told Madden they did not want to perform sexual massages.
Madden was previously arrested in October 2000 for prostitution in Atlantic City and served 15 days in prison. In March 2003, she was arrested for promoting prostitution in a Berlin Township, Camden County, massage parlor. She got two years' probation.
After Madden left Swan Day Spa, she managed Melrose Spa in Upper Uwchlan, Chester County, where she was arrested when charges came down in this case.
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