Massage parlor worker to plead in sex trafficking

A massage parlor worker has told a federal judge she plans to plead guilty for her role in a sex trafficking scheme linked to Asian massage parlors in Wichita.

A document filed Thursday by the lawyer for Xiuqing Tian (shoo-ching tee-AHN’) notifies the court of her plans to plead guilty ahead of a trial scheduled to begin next week.

The move would leave massage parlor owner Gary Kidgell and his wife, Yan Zhang, as the remaining defendants to face jurors. They’re accused of conspiring to recruit women from around the country to come to Wichita to work at massage parlors, then coercing them into prostitution.

Investigators who raided the parlors reported finding ads in a Chinese-language newspaper in New York, Chicago and San Francisco offering “massage parlor hiring” in Kansas.