- August 27, 2021
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The lawsuit alleges women at New Angel Beauty Spa on Richmond Road agreed to perform sexual acts in exchange for money.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The city wants to shut down a spa in Dongan Hills, alleging it is a public nuisance because acts of prostitution have occurred there.
Toward that end, the city has sued New Angel Beauty Spa Inc. located on the ground floor at 1775 Richmond Road, said court papers.
Recently filed in state Supreme Court, St. George, the suit seeks to close the business for a year and impose stiff monetary penalties.
New Angel Beauty Spa is also listed as Angel Beauty & Spa in suit papers.
“Those individuals involved in the prostitution activity may still have access to the subject premises, thus the opportunity for prostitution activity and the consequential negative effect on the surrounding community still exists,” a civil complaint alleges. “Accordingly, a closing order is necessary to abate this serious public nuisance.”
According to the city Administrative Code, any building, including one- and two-family homes, used for prostitution as defined under the state Penal Law is considered a public nuisance.
In the civil complaint, the city alleges acts of prostitution occurred at the spa on two occasions last fall.
On Nov. 24, a woman inside the premises agreed to perform a massage and engage in a sexual act with an undercover officer in exchange for money, a civil complaint alleges.
Three days later, on Nov. 27, a woman at New Angel agreed to engage in sexual intercourse with an undercover officer for cash, the civil complaint said.
The investigation at New Angel stemmed from community complaints to authorities about prostitution occurring there, the suit said.
Those complaints were lodged in January and April of 2019, as well as in January, October and November of 2020, said the suit.
In addition, in February and May of 2019, three individuals were arrested at New Angel on prostitution offenses, the civil complaint said.
The suit also names KWR Advisors LLC as a defendant.
KWR Advisors is identified in the complaint as the last known owner of the Richmond Road property.
The complaint maintains it is “reasonable” to infer the property owners were aware or should have been aware of the purported prostitution at the spas since the public knew about it.
Besides shuttering the spa, the city wants the defendants to take an additional hit to the pocketbook.
The city seeks a civil penalty of $1,000 imposed on the defendants for each day they “intentionally conducted, maintained or permitted the public nuisance.”
A woman who answered the phone at New Angel said no one in authority was available to speak.
A phone message left for KWS Advisors’ registered agent was not immediately returned.
The lawsuit is among several the city has filed this year seeking to shutter a Staten Island spa as an alleged public nuisance.
In February a justice issued a preliminary injunction closing Zen Zen Spa at 1401 Richmond Ave., Graniteville, pending the disposition of the city’s civil lawsuit.
In a civil complaint, the city alleges women at the spa agreed, on two separate occasions last summer, to perform a sexual act on an undercover officer in exchange for money.
The suit was also filed in state Supreme Court, St. George.
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