NORTHAMPTON — A judge on Thursday denied a request to lower bail for Shuzi Li, the 52-year-old West Springfield woman prosecutors say spearheaded a multi-state sex trafficking operation that included locations in several western Massachusetts communities.
Li has pleaded not guilty in Northampton District Court to charges of trafficking persons for sexual servitude, deriving support from prostitution and money laundering.
Prosecutors say Li housed the 10 or so victims in apartments in Amherst and West Springfield, as well as inside the massage shops themselves. Li, who has a New York driver’s license, is also accused of transporting the young Asian women from the Flushing neighborhood of Queens in New York City to her western Massachusetts massage businesses in Northampton and Agawam — Pine Spa and Agawam Massage Therapy, respectively.
The women in the massage business fronts, authorities said, provided sexual favors to male clients for cash tips, and that Li advertised these services online and pocketed the bulk of their earnings.
Assistant Massachusetts Attorney General Elizabeth Vasiliades said in court Thursday that the operations brought in roughly $10,000 per month.
“We believe there is an investigation that shows she was in charge of these spas (and) that she was in charge of these workers,” Vasiliades said, who argued for Li’s bail amount to remain unchanged at $100,000.
Meanwhile, defense counsel Rachel Weber argued for $20,000, telling the judge that, after Li’s most recent court appearance, Jan. 12, her client slipped and fell when she returned to the Women’s Correctional Facility and has suffered “excruciating” pain since, including vomiting, nausea and numbness in her hands, arms and legs. It wasn’t until 11 days after the fall that Li was finally taken to Baystate Medical Center, where doctors said she likely sustained a concussion from the fall.
When and if Li posted the $20,000 bail, Weber said, she’d seek further treatment from her primary care doctor who is based in New York, where Li also has a residence.
“Twenty thousand is going to be more than enough (to ensure) that Ms. Li will abide by every condition of the court and appear for every date,” Weber said in court. And even if the bail is lowered to that amount, she added, there was no guarantee Li could afford it.
Vasiliades argued that Li was a well-connected flight risk who was well off financially.
Considering the severity of the charges and Li’s apparent out-of-state connections, he kept bail at $100,000. If she’s released, Li won’t be permitted to leave Massachusetts — she also previously surrendered her passport — nor will she be able to have contact with former employees of the now defunct spas.
The joint investigation led by the state attorney general’s office and Northampton police into the alleged trafficking operation also netted the arrests of three others: Feng Ling Liu, 50, her husband Jian Song, 48, both of Sunderland, and Liu’s daughter, Ting Ting Yin, 26, of New Hyde Park, N.Y.
Liu and Song operated Hadley Massage Therapy on Route 9, Feng Health Center in East Longmeadow and Massage Body Work in Framingham, all of which were allegedly fronts for “extensive human trafficking operations,” according to the attorney general’s office.
The two alleged sex trafficking operations are similar in size and scope, authorities said, but are not connected.