WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — In tears, her head in her hands, a woman accused of running a prostitution ring out of a Jupiter massage parlor asked a judge to reduce her bond.
The judge granted 39-year-old Lei Wang’s request, as long as she posts $75,000 in exchange and remains on house arrest at her home in Hobe Sound.
“She can meet with lawyers. She can go to church. She can go wherever she gets approval to go from her officer,” Miami-based defense attorney Paul Petruzzi told reporters after the hearing.
However, Petruzzi also said Wang’s bond should have been reduced even further to about $500 per misdemeanor charge and $7,500 for her second-degree felony charge.
“If she was convicted on every single count, she would still score non-state prison a county jail sentence. She’s charged with a pile of misdemeanors and one felony … This case is just getting um too many eyes on it, and it is being made to be something that it’s not.”
The multi-agency case made headlines with allegations of possible human trafficking and the charging of high profile “johns” like New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft.
His attorneys fired back after Martin County Sheriff William Snyder sat down with Contact 5 last week.
“It looks like trafficking. It feels like trafficking. It sounds like trafficking. I believe it is human trafficking, but we are just a little shore too being able to prove that,” Snyder told Contact 5’s crime investigator Merris Badcock.
In response to our interview, Kraft’s attorney William Burke told USA Today Sports, “Sheriff Will Snyder admitted that there was no human trafficking. He lied about it. His officers lied about it. I don’t really know what to say. I’ve never seen anything quite like that before.”
But during our sit down, Snyder also told Contact 5 his detectives have not given up on human trafficking charges just yet.
“What we need to really have a compelling trafficking case would be a believable testimony from one of our victims.”
Martin County did not investigate Kraft’s case, since it wasn’t in their jurisdiction. However, court records show Jupiter Police were tipped off to the case by a Martin County detective.
At Wang’s hearing on Thursday, Jupiter’s lead detective Andrew Sharp said he could not comment when asked if his case was still under investigation.
In February, Martin County Sheriff William Snyder announced the results of an eight-month investigation, which uncovered prostitution at five day spas from Jupiter to Hobe Sound.
According to the sheriff, the spas involved were:
- Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter
- Cove Day Spa in Stuart
- Therapy Spa in Stuart
- Bridge Day Spa in Hobe Sound
- Sequoia Apple Day Spa in Hobe Sound
The State Attorney's Office said New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft was one of the men who solicited sex at Orchids of Asia Day Spa.
Kraft has pleaded not guilty to charges of soliciting another to commit prostitution and has requested a jury trial.