GUILDERLAND — Two Chinese women arrested on Sept. 28 for unauthorized practice of massage without a license, a felony, were “thrown out” of the building where they lived and worked, their landlord said.

“I’m done with Asians,” said Victor Gagliardi, who owns the property at 2020 Western Ave. where the A&B Western Spa was located.

“I’m in trouble now. I don’t know what I’m going to do,” business owner Yanyun Xie said on Sunday through a Mandarin translator.

The charges against Yani Du, 29, and Hsin Hua Ho, 45, said Curtis Cox, deputy chief of the Guilderland Police, are strictly for operating without a license, and not for any type of sexual contact with customers. He added, “You do see a lot of news coverage about other types of massage out there. But this one is strictly restricted to the fact that they were operating without licenses.”

A 2015 charge in Colonie Town Court against Xie, who is now 34, for unauthorized practice, when she was a worker at a spa in Colonie, was dropped “in the interest of justice,” according to spokeswoman Cecilia Walsh of the Albany County District Attorney’s Office. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has investigated the Guilderland case, an agency spokesman said, but has decided that the people involved do not meet ICE criteria for taking any further action.

The ICE spokesman, Khaalid Walls, said that the agency’s resources — including its enforcement staff, detention space, and removal assets — are limited, and that “it cannot respond to all immigration violations or remove all persons illegally in the United States.” The agency’s policy is to exercise prosecutorial discretion and prioritize cases that involve matters of “national security, border security, and public safety.”

Asked about the immigration status of the defendants, Walls said that that information is protected under privacy laws.

Walls added that Immigration and Customs Enforcement “has reviewed the case and determined that the agency will take no further action.”

The two spa employees, and their boss, were also arrested by the Guilderland Police for operating the business with children present. Du and Ho, the employees, were charged with endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor, while Xie, the business owner and the mother of two children, ages 7 and 9, was charged with acting in a manner injurious to a child under the age of 17.

These child-related charges were brought because crimes were committed in the presence of children, Cox said. Xie’s two children, were regularly bused after school to the massage business and stayed there under the care of their mother or her two employees, according to the arrest report. Gagliardi said the children stayed in an apartment on the premises and not in the business.

Masseuses Du and Ho appeared in Guilderland Town Court on Sept. 29, represented by Madalyn R. DeThomasis of the public defender’s office, and are scheduled to return on Oct. 6.

Xie, whose arrest report gives her address as 1806 Brandywine Parkway in Guilderland, is due in court on Oct. 13.

Previous charge dropped

When asked about Xie’s Colonie arrest — as part of a larger arrest, of 10 people from four spas in that town — nearly two years ago on charges of unauthorized practice, Walsh said that that charge was “dismissed in the interest of justice” and that the records had been sealed.

Walsh said that she could not discuss the earlier case specifically, but referred The Enterprise to a legal definition of “motion to dismiss,” which can be brought when there is some “compelling factor, consideration or circumstance clearly demonstrating that conviction or prosecution … would constitute or result in injustice.”

The earlier case in Colonie was the result of an  undercover operation by the Albany County Sheriff’s Office, in which investigators responded to advertisements on backpage.com for “full-service massage.” When they went to any of the four spas, a press release from the sheriff’s office from the time of the arrest said, they were led to private rooms and offered sexual services for an extra fee.

The press release from that time went on to state that the reason for conducting the investigation had been to identify potential victims of human trafficking. The release said, “Although the suspects have all been charged, if they are found to be victims, the charges will be dropped.”

Licensing

Massage therapists in New York State need to be licensed by the State Education Department. Requirements include, according to the SED website, 1,000 hours of coursework in anatomy, physiology, neurology, pathology, hygiene, first aid, infection control, and both Oriental and Western massage therapy. The 1,000 hours are to include 150 hours of practice on people.

None of the three defendants are listed by the state as being licensed in massage therapy.

The business owner, Yanyun Xie, is listed on the website of the Department of State as having an active license — granted on Feb. 25, 2016 — for an “appearance-enhancement business.” This license grants the right to operate an establishment that offers appearance enhancement services, but not to perform those services, according to that website.

Appearance enhancement is a broad area, and includes nail specialty, hair styling, and cosmetology.

Each employee within a licensed business also needs to be licensed in whatever specialty he or she offers, said a representative at the New York State Division of Licensing Services call center. For instance, someone offering manicures within a licensed appearance-enhancement business must be a licensed nail specialist, which according to the department’s website requires 250 hours of training; and someone waxing eyebrows must be licensed in waxing, which the website says requires 75 hours’ training.

Limited forms of massage are included within some of the appearance-enhancement areas of specialization; for instance, part of a nail specialist’s training is in massage of the foot and leg and massage of the arm and hand.  

After Du and Ho appeared in court on Sept. 29, business owner Xie told The Enterprise outside the courtroom that a massage license is difficult to get. “You have to study for a long time,” she said.

The landlord

The business was run from 2020 Western Ave., on the corner of Sumter Avenue. It is a rambling building that takes up the entire block, all the way to Cornell Avenue, closer to Route 155. The massage office filled 2,500 square feet on the east side; an apartment with a separate entrance is in the middle; and other businesses rent several smaller offices on the west side. The address of the west side of the building is 2022 Western Ave.

Building owner Victor Gagliardi, who emerged from the building’s basement on Sunday to speak with The Enterprise, was visibly frustrated as he said, “I threw them out. I want their stuff out by tomorrow.”

Xie, the owner of the business, also came by 2020 Western Ave. on Sunday, with her two children. Gagliardi said that the children used to ride the bus every day from school to 2020 Western Ave. and stay in the apartment that is located at the center of the building, with a separate outside door leading to it —”it’s a mother-in-law apartment,” he said.

The arrest records state that, after school, the children would be at the apartment under the care either of their mother, Xie, or one of the women working at the business.

The two women offering the massage services were both also charged with endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor.

“It’s wrong for them [the town or the police] to come here and bring those kids into it,” said Gagliardi. “I know those kids. They’re really neat kids.”

Gagliardi’s brother, Louis Gagliardi, ran an obstetric-gynecological practice from the site for 30 years, said Victor Gagliardi. After his brother died two years ago, the building came to him, he said. “It’s not easy to rent out a 2,500-square-foot space,” he said, referring to the portion of the building that Xie rented until recently.

Among the other businesses in the building is a political candidate’s campaign headquarters.

That office is another space he needs to rent out, Gagliardi noted. It will be empty as of Nov. 9.