A Covington massage entrepreneur is rubbing local police and prosecutors the wrong way with his stable of young women who allegedly are helping male customers do more than just relax in their thoughts.
Last May, Covington police raided three massage businesses owned by Don Meyer, charging him with engaging in organized crime and prostitution. Police claim some of Meyer's employees, who subcontract from him, were providing more than a light-touch sensuous massage.
Meyer, however, argues that his employees were acting within the legal bounds of the law and, if they did engage in sexual contact, weren't paid to do so.
What has resulted is a tricky question of semantics and disagreement over where the line is drawn between a legal, nude massage and prostitution.
After Meyer spent three days in court last June as a result of the charges, a mistrial was declared when the jury couldn't decide whether prostitution had occurred. He returns to court to face the same charges on June 20.
Assistant Kentucky Commonwealth Attorney Jim Redwine, the state's prosecuting attorney for the case, said jurors last year were confused about the legal definition of prostitution. Kentucky law defines prostitution as any time an act for sexual gratification involving the sex organs is exchanged for money, he said.
"The jury was hung up on the fact that there was not an extra charge (for an alleged sex act), that the women did it gratis," Redwine said. "That issue will be dealt with this time."
The state prostitution law's interpretation is broad, and Redwine thinks it takes considerably less to cross the line to prostitution than do Meyer and his attorney, Daryl Cox.
They argue the literal wording of the law -- that prostitution occurs only if a sexual act is exchanged for money. Once a massage service is provided and paid for, if a sexual act occurs afterwards without discussion of an extra fee, it's not prostitution, Meyer said, adding that he doesn't condone such behavior and will fire employees who engage in it. In fact, he claims to have his own undercover agents who will offer a woman $100 for a little something extra in order to sniff out bad apples.
Cox said that, with prostitution, there must be some kind of agreement or understanding that the sex act would be exchanged for money.
"The argument is does the (price) include a sex act?," he said. "The argument back is that nothing was discussed."
Cox said his client's position is that no such discussion occurred. Although he wouldn't comment on the state's case against Meyer, he pointed out that it "obviously couldn't be proved the first time."
Redwine said he's "very confident" about his case this time around, adding that there were only two dissenting jurors in the previous trial. Besides having added proof that he wouldn't comment about, he now has the testimonies of five of Meyer's former employees.
Currently Meyer owns and operates one massage business, Classy Touch, at 409 Scott St. in Covington. He employs eight women to give customers half-hour and hour massages, with the women fully clothed (for $50/$80), topless ($100/$160) or nude ($130/$200).
It's unrealistic to think that a man will pay $130 for a nude woman to rub baby oil on his back and chest for half an hour and not expect something else, Redwine said. The fee includes more than a massage, he said, and that agreement is understood.
Another point of contention is figuring out who is performing the sexual gratification -- is actual stimulation of sex organs happening at the employees' hands or at the customers', and is it illegal if the man stimulates himself?
Meyer admitted that it's not uncommon for a man to become aroused during a massage and to begin to stimulate himself. In this situation, which he considers legal, he said he advises his employees to "just let (the man) go" for their own safety.
Redwine said he classifies such a circumstance as prostitution and will include it in his case against Meyer, but he said it's a matter of opinion among legal professionals.
"It's like 'I'll give (a woman) $20 for (her) to show me (her) breasts while I masturbate,' " Redwine said. "To me, that's prostitution."
The main exhibit of evidence that landed Meyer in court last year was paper towels found in a trash can during the raids on his businesses. The towels were soiled with semen, begging the question of who did the actual sex organ stimulation.
During last year's trial, one of Meyer's employees testified that she had engaged in a sexual act with a customer, but not for any extra money. Meyer said her reasoning was capitalism at its best -- the business is competitive, and the best service at the lowest price keeps her regulars.
When Meyer was raided, he said, two of his six employees allegedly broke the law. But he also said that neither was stopped from continuing what they were doing.
"That's ridiculous," said Lt. Thomas Schonecker, assistant chief of the Covington police department, adding that his officers acted within the law at all times. "It's definitely a lie."
When the trial is over, Meyer and Cox say they might pursue a lawsuit over the police's entrapment of the women.
"It's an interesting legal argument, but ... issues need to be addressed," Cox said.
Redwine wouldn't go into much detail about entrapment, saying it was a complicated issue and that it varies from case to case.
Sgt. David Lovett, assistant commander of the Cincinnati Police Vice Division, said entrapment can be sticky.
"It depends on the conversation," he said. "In general, an officer or an informant cannot discuss a sex act or conduct contact in connection with something of value in return. If it's a massage, the money has already exchanged hands. So if the sex continues as a conditional activity, it's already a prostitution issue. You don't have to say anything, just engage."
Covington police began investigating Meyer in February 1999, he said, when his ex-wife, upset at not c ollecting her desired amount of child support, called police alleging that Meyer was dealing cocaine and prostituting women out of his businesses.
Redwine said the investigation resulted after a series of anonymous complaints from the businesses' neighbors but didn't deny that Meyer's ex-wife might have filed some of them.
"It's not Wyoming, but Fort Mitchell is still a neighborhood," Redwine said. "When we spoke to neighborhood residents and businesses, they said there was traffic through there all of the time -- all of them men."
The fact that there are rarely women customers and that the only employee records Meyer keeps are simple contracts led Redwine to believe the testimonies of the former employees, he said. Meyer told Redwine and CityBeat that, if prostitution occurred, he wasn't aware of it because his employees were subcontractors.
At the time of last year's raid, Meyer operated three massage businesses in Covington -- Classy Touch Massage Therapy on Main Street, Easy Touch Massage Therapy on Pike Street and Sensuous Touch Massage Therapy on Greenup Street. Covington police raided them all on May 13, 1999.
Meyer ended up turning himself in, in a manner of speaking. He knew his girlfriend and employee, Shay, was working that day. When she didn't answer her cellular phone, Meyer drove over to the business, and he and Shay were arrested on the spot.
Both were charged with engaging in organized crime, promoting prostitution in the second and third degree and permitting prostitution. Combined, the charges carry a sentence of up to 20 years to life.
Shay was the only employee of Meyer's to be charged, but she didn't cooperate on any level, Redwine said. All of the other employees agreed to testify and thus weren't charged, he said.
Meyer said he went back to business after the raids when he confirmed with Redwine that nude massage wasn't illegal -- if such businesses don't have a liquor license, employees can touch their customers while nude, unlike an exotic dancer at a club. But he returned only to Sensuous Touch Massage Therapy; he shut down his other businesses because, he said, the raids caused an exodus of fearful employees.
Since the raids, Meyer detailed a string of incidents that he feels shows police harassment. When he was booked at the Kenton County Jail, he claims officers were listening in on his phone calls and that he was put in isolation for 72 hours. On May 17, he made his $10,000 bail.
When Sensuous Touch reopened, Meyer said, police continually called and threatened his employees with legal ramifications and with taking their children from them. Police also repeatedly called Shay to ask where Meyer kept his "stash," referring to earlier drug allegations that eventually weren't pursued. Police did find some drugs in Meyer's home, but lab reports showed them to be prescription drugs.
Officers also have harassed his customers, Meyer said, with everything from racial slurs to threats of telling their families about their visits to the business. Meyer recalled a time when one of his employees was working at night alone, and the police came. When she went to get her identification, she told Meyer that the officers taunted her customer, who was naked on the massage table.
Redwine said he wasn't familiar with the harassment allegations.
Covington police balked at Meyer's accusations.
"The man's lost it," Schonecker said. "It's typical of him to take this position."
Meyer eventually closed Sensuous Touch because of problems with the landlord, who didn't want the business there. Meyer then opened another Easy Touch in the 900 block of Main Street and, later, Classy Touch in the 1200 block of Scott Street. In June, however, the city of Covington said both businesses were in violation of fire codes and lacked an occupancy license. They were shut down, and Meyer opened Classy Touch at its current location, passing inspections and obtaining the necessary license.
Meyer says he's being discriminated against because he's "a horse of a different color," claiming that no one else is getting busted for massage-related activities. He operates one of Covington's two massage businesses; the other, Relaxing Moments, doesn't currently offer nude massage but hopes to in the future, one of its employees told CityBeat.
Meyer opened his first massage business in June 1998 and admits it's lucrative. He first entered the massage business six or seven years ago when a friend of his began doing massages out of a Latonia dance club and floated the idea.
Meyer, who was in marketing at the time, jumped at the opportunity.
"There's nothing easier to market than a beautiful woman," he said.
As owner and operator of Classy Touch, Meyer's duties consist of paying the rent, keeping the supplies stocked and keeping the phone ringing in exchange for a 40 percent cut of his employees' earnings.
Although business fluctuates, he said, employees easily can make up to $400 per day.
Shay and another employee, Racquel Adkins, described a massage session as pretty basic. The customer comes in, gets undressed in private, and then a clothed, topless or nude woman rubs baby oil on his back for about 15 minutes; he rolls over, and she rubs baby oil on his chest. Nude massage is the most popular service, they said. Customers are not permitted to touch the women.
Both women are angry at the prostitution allegations, which they claimed are unfair.
"The cops harass (us) and try to make (us) feel low and what (we) do is bad," Shay said minutes after finishing a nude, hour-long massage. "I love my body. There's nothing wrong with what I do." ©
