Police have finally taken action against one of the Asian massage parlors outed by Seven Days for prostitution and possible human trafficking.

On Thursday evening, Williston police charged Tom Booska, owner of the building housing Harmony Health Spa, with knowingly allowing prostitution on the premises. He was cited to  appear in court next Tuesday.

Williston Police Chief Todd Shepard says police went to the massage parlor on Wednesday and spoke to two customers leaving the spa who said they received sexual services in exchange for money.

The day before, Shepard hand-delivered a letter to Booska from Chittenden State’s Attorney T.J. Donovan warning the landlord he would be held criminally liable if authorities found evidence of prostitution on his property.

“He was allowed some opportunity to do something about it and it was still continuing on Wednesday,” Shepard said.

The investigation was a response to Seven Days‘ June 5 cover story, “Unhappy Endings: Getting a Grip on Vermont’s Asian Sex Market.” The article documented prostitution at three Chittenden County massage parlors: Harmony, Seiwa Spa in Essex Junction and River Spa in Burlington. The latter two have since closed.

Shepard also said that Williston police had reported zoning violations at the spa to the town planning and zoning director after it learned the women were living on site. According to Shepard, Booska received the notice of violation and was actively seeking apartments to house the women when he was charged.

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Andy Bromage was a Seven Days staff writer from 2009-2012, and the news editor from 2012-2013.

3 replies on “Williston Landlord Charged With Allowing Prostitution, Customers May Be Identified in Court”

  1. Does anyone know if the Attorney General’s office and/or victims’ services has staff that can reach these women where they are – knowing the cultural issues, the language, etc?

  2. The U.S. Attorney, Tris Coffin states “…it’s not appropriate for the federal government and federal investigators to become the prostitution police.” If the Government is not going to do something about this, who is? At least TJ Donovan is taking the Human Trafficking matter and prostitution in VT seriously! We should be in an uproar about this and it took a 7days article/reporter to do something?

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