Story Published:
Feb 1, 2012 at 7:57 PM MDT
Story Updated:
Feb 2, 2012 at 3:54 PM MDT
BILLINGS - A judge has sentenced Gregory McFarland and Myong Suk "Suzie" McFarland to 13 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. They had pleaded guilty to interstate promotion of prostitution and money laundering.
Gregory, age 52, and "Suzie," age 62, were operating two massage parlors in Billings, the Far West Sauna and the Shangri-La Spa and Sauna. A lengthy investigation by Billings police shut down their operations.
Deputy Police Chief Tim O'Connell remembers three other prostitution businesses being disbanded since 1987 in the Magic City.
"(It's) the oldest profession in the world and we've always had it. It's always a problem, but the problem has changed over the years," O'Connell said. "The streets of Billings were a lot different than they are now. I mean it used to be any given night we would have 15 to 20 street walkers down on Montana and Minnesota Avenue. You just don't see them like you used to."
The Montana Board of Crime Control documented ten cases of prostitution in the state in 2010. Officers arrested one person for promoting prostitution and three people for prostitution.
"I don't think they feel remorse or anything," O'Connell said. "It's the price of doing business for them."
Prostitution is a misdemeanor offense in Montana punishable by a fine of up to $500, six months in jail, or both. Promoting prostitution is a felony with fines up to $50,000, up to ten years in prison, or both. For the first offense, a prostitute's client could be fined up to $1,000, be imprisoned for up to one year, or both.
Police said websites, like Craig's List, are becoming more popular for connecting customers to prostitutes.
"Our sting operations that we used to do on the street, we've just taken them to another level with social networking," O'Connell said. "Makes it a little more complicated, a little more complex, but all in all it's the same thing."
As long as people are willing to pay for sex, people like the McFarlands will take the risk to try to cash in.
"There's a lot of money to be made in that business, and it's never going to go away," O'Connell said. "It's not going to go away because people pay the money for it. It's very lucrative."
O'Connell said prostitution becomes a priority for police when other crimes accompany it, like theft, assault, and illicit drug use. But Billings isn't seeing the same level of these issues on the streets as in the past.
"Our downtown has flourished in the last ten years. I mean, it's a lot safer than it used to be," O'Connell said. "There's a lot more positive activity in our downtown. And a lot of that is because we don't have the problem with hookers, street hookers, walking the streets. We don't have that anymore. That's changed the outlook of our downtown considerably."
The Federal Bureau of Prisons will decide which prison the McFarlands will go to within 30 to 90 days. Stay tuned to KULR-8 for information about how the McFarlands ran their businesses.
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