Cranberry prostitution defendants get ARD
Four people charged last year in a prostitution case in Cranberry Township were placed on 12 months probation and accepted into the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program Tuesday in Butler County Court.
Di Xu, 41, Ailian Chen, 65, and Jing Wang, 45, all of Cranberry Township, and Oliver J. Price III, 75, of Bakerstown agreed to the probation and ARD terms in what was scheduled as a status conference for their trial, which was to begin Monday before Judge William R. Shaffer.
He ordered the defendants to report to the Butler County Adult Probation office that day, instead of his courtroom for trial.
“Our goal was to shut them down and hit them economically,” Ben Simon, Butler County assistant district attorney, said after the hearing of the prosecution's goal in the case.
The four defendants initially were charged with felony counts of conspiracy in a corrupt organization, conspiracy to promote prostitution and possession of an instrument of crime and a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct.
The possession of an instrument of crime charges against Xu and Wang were previously withdrawn.
On Tuesday the defendants pleaded guilty to misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct. All other charges against them were postponed, but will be reactivated if the defendants don't obey rules of probation or are arrested again, Shaffer said.
All the charges will be dismissed if the defendants successfully complete probation, Shaffer said.
The defendants can petition the court to have the disorderly conduct charge expunged from their records if the charges are dismissed after the 12-month period, he said.
Cranberry Township police filed the charges following an investigation into alleged prostitution at Ailian Chen Chinese Foot Massage, 81 Dutilh Road, between 2015 and 2017.In March the building was sold, with the stipulation that the proceeds remain under the court's jurisdiction. On Tuesday that part of the case moved forward as well.Leftover proceeds from the sale of the building where the alleged incidents took place and money police seized from the building were also addressed Tuesday.“We've reached an agreement on all issue in this case,” Simon said to Shaffer at the start of the hearing.The defendants signed an agreement forfeiting claim to $100,115 that police seized. The money was forfeited to the district attorney's office.The $194,020 left over from the sale of the property to East and West Property LLC, owned by Price, Xu, Chen and Kevin Kinzler, was divided — with $100,000 being returned to East and West and $94,020 forfeited to the district attorney's office.Chen and Price are married, as are Xu and Kinzler. Kinzler was not charged in the case.The hearing lasted over an hour partially due to a court-appointed interpreter repeating everything the judge and attorneys said and asked in Chinese for Chen, Xu and Wang.Documents from the hearing will be forwarded to the interpreter who will translate them into Chinese for the defendants.Attorneys for the women said they are in the country legally, but are not citizens.In March, the court allowed the sale of the property to Lightning Creek Holdings for $469,000 to proceed after temporarily blocking the sale.
