WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. _ One person in Martin County and two in Indian River County have taken pleas as Palm Beach County's cases in Jupiter, including the one for Robert Kraft, are on hold.
Prosecutors in two Treasure Coast counties are settling for plea deals in cases stemming from the crackdown on prostitution at day spas, reducing or even dropping charges and allowing defendants to avoid prison time, while Palm Beach County's cases remain on hold.
Three people facing the most serious charges in the four-county law-enforcement operation targeting the shopping-center businesses, including Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter, have reached agreements in the past week in Indian River and Martin counties.
A monthslong investigation looking into day spas in Palm Beach, Martin, Indian River and Orange counties, led to arrests and misdemeanor charges for hundreds of people, mostly johns caught paying for sex. Kraft, the owner of the NFL's New England Patriots, and John Havens, a former Citigroup president, are the most prominent among them.
Only the owners and employees of the spas were charged with felonies, including Yan Xu, 51, and Kenneth Zullo, 65, who were arrested in Vero Beach and charged with racketeering and deriving proceeds from prostitution at a Vero Beach spa.
The racketeering counts were the closest authorities had come to charging someone with the human trafficking they alleged brought women from China to work at the spas. To date, no one faces human trafficking charges as part of the investigation.
Court documents show that Xu and Zullo, Xu's boyfriend, pleaded no contest since last week to reduced misdemeanor charges.
Xu pleaded no contest to engaging in prostitution, a second-degree misdemeanor. She was ordered to pay nearly $24,000 in fines and must undergo testing for sexually transmitted diseases. She was given credit for time served. Zullo pleaded no contest to transporting a person for the purpose of prostitution and ordered to pay about $13,000. A judge ruled that adjudication be withheld against Zullo.
The racketeering charge against Xu and Zullo could have resulted in up to 30 years in prison.
On Wednesday, a 48-year-old woman who ran a spa in Stuart agreed to plead no contest to a charge of racketeering. Charges of money laundering, deriving support from proceeds or prostitution, permitting prostitution and engaging in prostitution against Lixia Zhu, of Stuart, were dropped.
No sentence has been imposed, but Zhu is cooperating with authorities in the case. The State Attorney's Office in Martin County said it will testify on Zhu's behalf regarding her cooperation before sentencing.
Many of the 25 men and four women arrested in connection with the investigation of the Jupiter spa have their cases on hold while an appellate court decides if video gained through a "sneak-and-peek" search warrant and allegedly showing the men and women engaged in sex acts can be used as evidence.
In May, two Palm Beach County judges ruled that the search warrant were incorrectly executed and that any evidence gained through use of the warrants must be suppressed and not available to prosecutors.
The state attorney's office appealed to the 4th District Court. The court has not said if it will hear the appeal. Prosecutors have indicated they can not move forward in the case if the evidence is deemed inadmissible. The stay means the case could be delayed for months, and possibly in 2020.
Three judges in Martin and Indian River counties have also thrown out video evidence against defendants.
