Peter Griffin, Illicit Massage Business, California 2023

State: California
Category: Sex Crimes
Source: <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdca/pr/former-san-diego-police-officer-and-others-plead-guilty-crimes-stemming-operation" style="color:#cc0000;" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">DOJ Press Release ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Â Ã¢â‚¬â€

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Former San Diego Police Vice Detective Pleads Guilty to Operating Illicit Massage Businesses

A former San Diego Police Vice Detective has pleaded guilty to operating five illicit massage businesses in California and Arizona that profited from exploiting women to engage in commercial sexual services.

According to court documents, Peter Griffin, 63, who left the San Diego Police Department in 2002, and three co-defendants, Kyung Sook Hernandez, Yu Hong Tan, and Yoo Jin Ott, owned and operated the businesses, which included ‘Genie Oriental Spa,’ ‘Felicita Spa,’ ‘Blue Green Spa,’ ‘Maple Spa,’ and ‘Massage W Spa,’ located in the greater San Diego area and in Tempe, Arizona, between 2013 and August 2022.

The criminal scheme involved incorporating the businesses with state agencies, managing the finances of the businesses, advertising commercial sexual services online, recruiting and employing women to perform commercial sexual services in the businesses, and benefiting financially from the illegal enterprises.

Griffin, who is also a former attorney, used his experience and skills as a vice detective to help the businesses evade law enforcement, thwart regulatory inspections, and conceal evidence. He also used his badge to intimidate an employee, telling her not to ‘open [her] mouth’ about her employment at the illicit massage business.

Griffin’s plea agreement states that throughout the course of the scheme, he used resources he had access to as a private investigator to obtain information on customers and employees on behalf of the illicit massage businesses.

The defendants encouraged and expected employees to perform commercial sexual services inside the businesses and relied on Griffin’s law enforcement background to help conceal the criminal conduct.

Griffin and his co-defendants are scheduled to be sentenced on June 30, 2023. The exact sentences have not been determined.