HARRISBURG – Attorney General Josh Shapiro today said the four individuals his Office charged in March for running a prostitution and human trafficking operation in Westmoreland and Allegheny county massage parlors have pleaded guilty.
“These individuals exploited and enslaved women, forcing them into prostitution for their own profit. These guilty pleas, and the jail time associated, are the closest we will get to justice for the horror they inflicted on the women they trafficked,” AG Shapiro said. “My office is working every day to put a stop to these human trafficking rings that lurk in the shadows of our society.”
Hui Xu, Huicun Wei, Chang Yu Chen, and Robert Delano Yerrick entered their guilty pleas today in Westmoreland County Court of Common Pleas.
Xu, of Mount Pleasant, owned and operated four Tokyo Massage Parlors where prostitution occurred. Chen, of Monroeville, picked up young women travelling from Flushing, NY, at bus stops and then took them to the massage parlors. Wei, of Flushing, NY, owned Judy’s Oriental Massage Parlor and offered sex acts at this establishment in exchange for money. Yerrick, of Delmont, transported victims from the bus stop to the massage parlors owned by Xu, was a frequent patron of the parlors, and housed some of the young women in exchange for sex.
Xu, as the ringleader, plead to two counts of trafficking individuals and one count each of promoting prostitution and criminal conspiracy. She was sentenced today to 1 to 2 years in prison but faces the possibility of deportation.
Wei pleaded guilty to one count of public nuisance and three counts of disorderly conduct and was sentenced to 11½ to 23 months in prison.
Yerrick and Chen both pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and were sentenced to accelerated rehabilitative disposition, or ARD.
Senior Deputy Attorney General Katherine Wymard prosecuted this case.
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