BELCHERTOWN — A Sunderland woman accused of trafficking women to work in local massage parlors has had her bail reduced.
Feng Ling Liu, 50, was previously held on $500,000 bail following her arraignment Eastern Hampshire District Court on Dec. 15, 2016. That amount was reduced to $100,000 Wednesday.
Her attorney, Alfred Chamberland, argued for bail to be set at $20,000, according to court documents.
If Liu is able to post bail, she must report to probation within 24 hours of her release. Other conditions of release include that she report to probation once a week, surrender her passport, not leave the state and have no contact with any witnesses or the three massage parlors she was involved in, including one in Hadley, according to court documents.
Liu and her husband Jian Song, 48, were arrested on Dec. 13, 2016, along with Liu’s daughter, 26-year-old Ting Ting Yin of New Hyde Park, New York, and Shuzi Li, 52, of West Springfield.
All four have denied charges that they transported people from New York and trafficked them for commercial sex in “massage parlors” in communities including Northampton, Hadley, Framingham, East Longmeadow and Agawam.
According to court documents, Liu’s attorney argued Wednesday to have charges of trafficking of a person for sexual servitude and deriving support from prostitution dismissed. The request was denied.
Previous motions filed in December to allow for funds to pay for a private investigator and Mandarin interpreter were approved. Each were not to exceed $500 and $1,000 respectively, according to court documents.
Emily Cutts can be reached at ecutts@gazettenet.com.