Former Murrysville massage parlor to be sold at sheriff's sale

A prime commercial lot and building with a notorious past along Route 22 in Murrysville is slated to be sold at Westmoreland County Sheriff’s Sale March 2.

The defunct Tokyo Massage Spa at 6428 William Penn Highway, which was shut March 22 after the arrest of owner Hui Xu, will be sold at a public sale 9 a.m. March 2, according to a notice posted by Sheriff James Albert.

On Dec. 12, Xu, a 45-year-old Chinese native who authorities claim ran a string of local massage parlors as fronts for prostitution, pleaded guilty to human trafficking offenses. Xu admitted that workers performed sex acts for clients at her four spa operations — three in Monroeville and the Tokyo Massage Spa in Murrysville.

Prosecutors said women, most of whom were brought to the area from China through a network that ran through Flushing, N.Y., staffed the parlors, where they lived and worked in deplorable conditions.

Common Pleas Judge Rita Hathaway imposed terms of the negotiated plea bargain: four concurrent sentences that require Xu to serve about a year in jail for each offense.

According to documents filed with Albert’s office, Xu acquired a $172,000 mortgage from First Commonwealth Bank to complete the $215,000 purchase on May 3, 2017, of the commercial building on a 100-by-97-foot lot.

After Xu’s arrest, she quit making the mortgage payments and owes $152,978, according to documents.

According to the county tax assessment office, the one-story building on the property is 48-by-31-feet and was originally built as a commercial office. It has four rooms and a bathroom, tax records said.

Annually, Xu was billed $2,463 in school taxes for the Franklin Regional School District, $568 in county taxes and $326 in municipal taxes.

Police charged that Xu, with her late husband, Henry “Sonny” Caruso, conspired to operate the human trafficking ring through the massage parlors and laundered proceeds from the businesses.

Prosecutors said Caruso, 49, a former jail guard who worked at Westmoreland County Prison, would have been charged for his role in the operation had he not committed suicide last year.

Prosecutors dismissed more serious racketeering and conspiracy charges against Xu in return for her guilty plea.

Huicun Wei, 47, of New York, the owner of Judy’s Massage Parlor, also in Murrysville, pleaded guilty to a reduced misdemeanor count of public nuisance and three summary disorderly conduct offenses on Dec. 12. Records indicate Wei rented space for that massage parlor, which was at 4125 William Penn Highway.

Human trafficking and conspiracy charges were dismissed against Wei.

Wei was sentenced to serve 11½ to 23 months in jail. Prosecutors said Wei, who purchased her business with money she earned working for Xu, cooperated with investigators.

Two others charged in the state investigation, Chang Yu Chen, 51, of Monroeville, and Robert Delano Yerick, 85, of Delmont, pleaded guilty to a reduced count of disorderly conduct and were accepted into the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition Program, a jail diversionary program for first-time nonviolent offenders. They were each ordered to serve four days probation.

The sheriff’s sales are usually conducted in the commissioner’s public meeting room area on the first floor of the courthouse in Greensburg.