Campbell Kicks Out Massage Parlor Said to Offer Sex

The Campbell City Council voted to deny the license for a massage parlor that they were told was acting as a house of prostitution.

 Police Sgt. Gary Berg told the city council Tuesday that when he went undercover at Angeline's Rejuvenating Spa on June 4, his massage therapist offered to have sexual intercourse with him for $150 on top of the $40 he paid for a massage.

That's one of the reasons the city sought to ban the massage parlor at 2617 S. Bascom from operating in the city. It was in a new part of Campbell annexed from the county earlier this year. 

Sgt. Berg said that after paying for his $40 massage, his therapist offered to have sex with him for $150. When she returned to the room with a condom, he alerted other officers who came in and arrested the woman and the owner of the business. He added that the owner of the business didn't return his $40.

The therapist was arrested for prostitution and the owner, Sabrina Steel, was arrested for having a condom in a massage business and for having a locked door in a massage business.

The parlor's attorney, Bernard Bray, said that the city is overreaching and confusing the spa with another establishment. He also said that if an employee was a prostitute, it wasn't known to the owner of the business, Sabrina Steel. And, he added, if it were really a place for prostitution there would have been more than only the one condom that police found during a search.

The unusual hearing at Tuesday's council meeting featured testimony from police, a customer and the spa owner. The vote was unanimous to deny a license to the business.

Sgt. Berg, who did the undercover sting,  said the salon is rated and written about on a website that specializes in reviewing salons that offer sex. A search found a site called Rubmaps and Angeline's review is here. The site lists at least a dozen other Campbell massage businesses that customers say offer sex.

"It is clear to me that the owner, Sabrina Steel, operated a prostitution business under the guise of a massage establishment," added Police Chief Gregory Finch, whose denial of the business's request for a license was the subject of the hearing. 

The business's attorney argued otherwise.

"If it were a house of prostitution, there would have been hundreds of condoms there, not just one," said Bray. He also said he couldn't find any listings on Google relating the business to sex. (See above link).

A customer who admitted to having sex in the business, said that his masseuse said she went next door to an adult store to buy a condom.

Sgt. Berg said the department had complaints from neighbors that 15-30 male customers a day went to the business and parked away from it, as if embarrassed.