Indictments go to massage parlor suspects in Twin Falls - Times-News

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ERIC GOODELL


TWIN FALLS — The four suspects arrested in August on suspicion of procurement of commercial sexual activity at local massage parlors have been indicted by a grand jury, court records say.



Salon



Twin Falls County Prosecuting Attorney Grant Loebs wouldn’t give the reason for the decision to have the matter go to grand jury, but now the four — Lan Wang, Limin Xu, Gaili Xing and Salon Kahn — will not have preliminary hearings for the charges.


Possible reasons for choosing to indict suspects can be to accommodate availability of witnesses, to protect witnesses who might be targeted for intimidation or to make efficient use of time, Loebs said.


Defendants who are indicted do not have the option of having a preliminary hearing, in which a mini-trial is held and a judge determines whether evidence shows probable cause. Grand juries determine whether the prosecuting attorney has sufficient evidence to prosecute a suspect.

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Two days of preliminary hearings had previously been scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, made that lengthy by individual hearings which would have had 10 to 13 people, including “johns” who reportedly frequented the establishments, testify at each one. Wang, Xu and Xing would have also required a Mandarin interpreter.


At a court hearing in October, public defenders urged Judge Benjamin Harmer to hold the hearings separately instead of holding a combined hearing, to make for a cleaner record of what suspect is accused of.


Under his indictment, Kahn faces multiple other felonies, records say. Initially charged with a single count of procurement of sexual activity, he is now also charged with interstate trafficking in commercial sexual activity, receiving pay for procurement of commercial sexual activity, receiving proceeds of illegal sexual activity and two counts of maintaining or supporting a place of commercial sexual activity, records say.


Court records say Kahn had been spotted delivering groceries and doing yard work, but the indictment alleges more involvement into commercial activity to the point of conspiring to import a person into the state for commercial sexual activity and/or inducing, enticing or procuring such as activity.


The four were arrested in August after a months-long investigation led by the Twin Falls Police Department and Twin Falls County Sheriff’s Office Special Investigations Unit.



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