A St. Albert woman has been charged with running a bawdy house out of a truck stop in Nisku.
Leduc RCMP officers charged Carolyn Joan Reesor, 51, of St. Albert this Wednesday with one count of keeping a common bawdy house and one count of knowingly permitting a bawdy house to operate on her property.
It’s the first time in eight years that the detachment has laid such charges, said Leduc RCMP Const. Jodi Heidinger.
“It’s not something we commonly see at all,” she said.
The charges come after a five-month investigation into the Nisku Massage Parlour at the Nisku truck stop. Police had received an anonymous tip that people in the parlour were offering sexual services in exchange for money, which prompted an investigation.
Police raided the place on Tuesday, June 28, at 6:40 p.m. and arrested a man and two female employees inside. They also seized various materials that were “sexual” in nature, the details of which Heidinger would not discuss as the matter was before the courts. The man was released without charge.
Dana Diplock, 40, and Karen Wojtkiw, 45, both of Edmonton, have also been charged with being found without lawful excuse in a common bawdy house. After further investigation, the police also laid charges against Reesor.
The massage parlour has been operated by its current owner for four years, Heidinger said. She was not sure how long it had operated as an alleged bawdy house or how many people had frequented it. The truck stop itself is the only one in town.
Reesor, Diplock and Wojtkiw are set to appear in Leduc Provincial Court on Thursday, Aug. 18. If convicted of keeping a bawdy house, Reesor faces a maximum prison sentence of two years. If convicted of permitting one on her property, she could be fined up to $2,000 and imprisoned for six months.
Diplock and Wojtkiw could be jailed for six months and fined $2,000 if convicted of their alleged offence.
This is not St. Albert’s first brush with a brothel. In September 1989, Linda Mari Bawn of Edmonton was fined $4,000 after she pleaded guilty to running a common bawdy house out of the St. Albert Health and Tanning Studio at Mission Ridge Mall.
Although prostitution is technically legal in Canada, most activities associated with it, including keeping a brothel, are outlawed.
An Ontario judge struck down the law against keeping a bawdy house last year as it forced prostitutes to break the law and risk violence on the streets. That judgment is now before the Court of Appeal for Ontario.
