Spa nixed when sex case bared

The city is denying a business license to a woman already issued a special use permit for a massage parlor after learning of a prostitution-related arrest.

The special use permit was approved in a 5-4 vote Jan. 15.

The Herald-News contacted city officials Tuesday about Yan Jiang, the prospective owner of the massage parlor, after a Google search showed news reports of a Plainfield resident of the same name being arrested for operating an illegal massage power at a spa in Fox Lake in 2015.

On Wednesday, interim City Attorney Chris Regis said Jiang was being denied the business license after it was determined she was the same woman arrested in Fox Lake.

“We got the fingerprints from Fox Lake and the booking photo, and it’s all the same,” Regis said.

Jiang, 54, of Plainfield, told The Herald-News on Tuesday that she was not the woman arrested in Fox Lake, but she knew the woman.

Because of a language barrier, Jiang referred questions to her friend, Maurice Parker of Plainfield, who told The Herald-News that she had “never been arrested.”

Lake County Sheriff’s police said in 2015 that Jiang, then 50, of Plainfield was arrested after offering to perform a sexual act for money.

The City Council was deadlocked on Jiang’s permit application before Mayor Bob O’Dekirk broke the tie by voting to approve it.

The permit, however, was not the final step in the city’s oversight, said interim City Manager Marty Shanahan. A background check follows the granting of special use permits to massage parlors, and Jiang could not open the business without the business license, he said.

Council members who voted against the permit said they were opposed to a massage business at the proposed 1736 Essington Road location but did not know of past news reports of Jiang’s arrest.

“I just didn’t think it fit where it was going,” council member Larry Hug said. “Essington Road is not the edge of town like it used to be.”