Day Spa owner guilty on pandering charge

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BY CHUCK VANDENBERG

PCC EDITOR

FORT MADISON - A 12-person jury found a 52-year-old Utah man guilty on Thursday of pandering for prostitution out of a day spa in Fort Madison.

Douglas Fenlaw, 52, of Saratoga Springs, Utah is now facing sentencing for a Class D felony which carries a maximum five years in prison and a $7,500 fine. A pre-sentence investigation report has been ordered and sentencing will take place in the next two to three months.

The jury appeared to be hung at 11:15 when a note was sent to District Associate Judge Ty Roger that said the jury couldn't come to unanimous decision and needed more direction for the court.

Rogers asked Curt Dial of Keokuk and Johnson County prosecutor Rachel Zimmerman-Smith if they had opinions on the note. Dial said the it should be left to to the jury as his client had a right to a hung jury. Zimmerman-Smith asked for what is called an "Allen charge" which basically is the judge telling the jurors to open their minds to other opinions and go back to work finding a unanimous verdict.

Rogers said he would take the matter under advisement and told the parties to stay at the courthouse while he made a decision. About 15 minutes later, before Rogers gave any jury instruction on the note, the jury came in with the guilty verdict.

Rogers didn't set a date for the sentencing pending the completion of the background report used to determine the penalty for the conviction.

Curt Dial, of Keokuk, who declined to comment after the verdict was handed down, presented his case on Wednesday and had Fenlaw testify on his own behalf.

Zimmerman-Smith and two jurors also declined to comment on the ruling.

The pandering charge has three parts and the state only had to show that Fenlaw took money from a premises knowing the character and content of the income, or that he kept or maintained a premises for the purpose of prostitution.

A person can also be charged with pandering if that person persuades, arranges, coerces someone to become a prostitute or return to the practice of prostitution. Prosecutors didn't pursue Fenlaw on that part of the pandering definition.

Law enforcement executed several search warrants on the day spa located at 2621 Avenue L in Fort Madison at the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018, after a sitting City Councilman visited the spa for a massage.

Chad Cangas testifed on Tuesday, the first day of the trial, that he visited the spa for an Asian shiatsu type massage and found the massage to be unlike any he'd had before. After his visit he went to the city's police department and notified authorities to what he said could be an "illegitimate" business.

Investigators then set up several undercover visits to the spa that included both men and women and found that although no sexual activity or offers for "pay for sex" activities were discovered, inferrences and overtures were made to sexual activity to several of the undercover officers.

State laws on prostitution don't mandate an act occur, but even an offer of selling or buying sex can be considered prostitution.

The case was prosecuted by Johnson County attorney Rachel Zimmerman-Smith and Andrea Jenses due to a conflict in the case with the Lee County Attorney's office.

Fenlaw testified that he took $1,500 a month from the facility for business expenses including lease payments, utilities, supplies and advertisements. Dial produced evidence during the trial in the form of emails and testimony where Fenlaw dismissed requests for pay for sex activities through BackPage.com. The website is home to many advertisements for illegal activity and has been shut down by the federal government, only to resurface under a different website.

Yu Hong, an Asian woman who went by "Lisa' at the spa, operated the facility on a daily basis. Fenlaw testified he had a personal relationship with Hong and threatened to send her to Chicago on a train if he ever caught her breaking the law.

Fenlaw is out on bond and will be required to return to the North Lee County Court for sentencing in 2019.

 

 

Fenlaw, fort madison, guilty, lee county, North Lee County Court, pandering, Pen City Current, prostitution, Yu Hong

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