BELCHERTOWN — A New York woman who prosecutors say played a role in a human trafficking operation with ties to western Massachusetts pleaded not guilty to a range of charges Wednesday.
Ting Ting Yin, 26, who appeared in Eastern Hampshire District Court to answer charges of trafficking of a person for sexual servitude, deriving support from prostitution, money laundering and conspiracy, was released on personal recognizance following her arraignment. Yin was arrested at her home in New Hyde Park on Dec. 13 and brought to Massachusetts.
Authorities said Yin helped shuttle women among three massage parlors that were actually fronts for commercial sex operations. Yin is also believed to be connected financially to the operation as her name was on rental applications for the locations as well as bank accounts.
At Wednesday’s arraignment, Assistant Attorney General Jeff Bourgeois said when Yin was arrested in New York, she acknowledged to police she made and paid for postings to Craigslist and Backpages, a website known for prostitution, for the massage parlors.
Yin denied knowledge of sexual activity at the massage parlors, according to Bourgeois. Police observed Yin bringing a woman from one location to another, according to Bourgeois. The woman, he said, was made to sit in the back seat of the vehicle rather than the front passenger seat.
Bourgeois requested that Yin be held on $500,000 bail. He also requested that if she were to post bail, she submit to GPS monitoring and not leave the state.
After hearing Bourgeois’ arguments, Judge David Ross told the attorney he hadn’t heard anything that directly tied Yin to the allegations.
Ross ordered Yin released on condition that she surrender her passport, report to probation at least once a week as directed either by phone or in person and not leave the continental U.S.
Yin’s attorney, Colleen Currie, said the judge recognized “the state of the evidence against Ms. Yin,” and made the right call in releasing her client.
Following the hearing, Currie met with her client to figure out how she would return home.
Yin came to the United States in 2005 and became a citizen in 2012, according to Currie. She graduated from Stony Brook University in 2013 and is currently a student at the New York College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Currie told the court.
Yin is the fourth person to be arraigned in connection with a joint investigation by the Massachusetts attorney general’s office and Northampton police, among others, that identified several massage parlors in Northampton, Hadley, Framingham, East Longmeadow and Agawam that were allegedly sex trafficking fronts, according to the attorney general’s office.
Yin is the daughter of Feng Ling Liu, 50, of Sunderland, who was also arrested and pleaded not guilty in the same court last week to similar charges.
The operation netted four arrests and helped identify 10 victims who were brought from New York and trafficked for sex inside local massage parlors in Northampton, Hadley, Framingham, East Longmeadow and Agawam.
Feng Ling Liu and her husband, Jian Song, 48, both of Sunderland, were also arrested Dec. 13 in connection with trafficking women between New York and operations in Hadley, East Longmeadow and Framingham, according to the AG’s office.
Liu and Song are accused of operating Hadley Massage Therapy, Feng Health Center in East Longmeadow and Massage Body Work in Framingham as fronts for “extensive human trafficking operations.”
Liu and Song were apprehended in Sunderland by Massachusetts State Police assigned to the attorney general’s office as well as the Sunderland Police Department, after search warrants were served at the business locations and their Sunderland residence.
Previously, Shuzi Li, 52, of West Springfield, was arrested for her alleged connection with the trafficking of women between Flushing, New York, and her businesses in Northampton and Agawam. Li pleaded not guilty in Northampton District Court Dec. 14 to charges of trafficking of persons for sexual servitude, deriving support from prostitution, and money laundering.
The businesses believed to be associated with the trafficking operations, according to the attorney general’s office, consist of Hadley Massage Therapy in Hadley, Feng Health Center in East Longmeadow, Massage Body Work in Framingham, Pine Spa in Northampton and Agawam Massage Therapy in Agawam.
Staff writer Michael Majchrowicz contributed to this report.
Emily Cutts can be reached at ecutts@gazettenet.com.