They spread like wallpaper over the front door of a spa near a bus stop on North Main Street, in plain view of the waiting riders. At another spa on Admiral Street, police stickers decorate the plexiglass receptionist window, along with logos noting that the spa accepts all major credit cards.
Representatives of the police organizations expressed surprise and dismay about the stickers and vowed to make sure that fundraisers for their organizations avoid contacting these spas in the future.
In recent years, Rhode Island spas advertising erotic services in alternative weeklies and online sex guides have multiplied. During the first half of the decade, the police regularly raided the Asian-run spas that had begun to pop up in downtown Providence, some just blocks from City Hall.
From through , the police launched a series of sting operations in which undercover detectives posed as customers and reported being solicited for sex. Police said these spas were linked to human-trafficking in which women, often illegal Asian immigrants, were being held in what they described as slave-like conditions. But Rhode Island has no law against prostitution that occurs indoors, and the prostitution charges were routinely dismissed in court.
Helgran, who testified at a Senate hearing last June against legislation to criminalize indoor prostitution. Helgran, 52, says he subleases a converted factory on Derry Street to a company which owns Central Health spa. Helgran moved to Rhode Island 17 years ago, after spending just over a year in a Florida prison during the late s on felony convictions for grand theft and burglary.
