The owner of a massage parlor in Willmar is accused of bringing in an employee from California, then holding her in a room in the business and telling her to perform sexual acts on customers.

Prosecutors have charged 55-year-old Ying He with soliciting or inducing a person to practice prostitution, disorderly house and fifth-degree assault. Her attorney told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS she couldn’t comment on pending cases.

According to charging documents, police were called to Massage Therapy on Saturday after a screaming woman called 911. The responding officer was flagged down by both He and a person at a neighboring business. The officer then found the woman who called 911 crying on the floor of the nearby business.

The woman, who police say is in her 50s, told the officer that her boss had hit her on the head. When an interpreter was reached, the woman said He was her boss and treated her poorly, confining her to a small room and refusing to let her drink water, cook food or turn on lights.

The criminal complaint states that the woman came to the business about a week earlier from California after an agency referred her for massage work. The woman said she specifically asked for legitimate work, not anything involving sex, but He controlled her when she arrived and told her to perform sex acts for customers, which she refused to do.

She added that He was verbally abusive toward her frequently and, that day, punched her in the head when she got upset with her.

Willmar Police Chief Jim Felt confirmed that investigators are still looking at it as a case of possible human trafficking, although that isn’t yet included in any charges.

“When it comes to human trafficking, a lot of times people think of it as people being kidnapped, being hidden and sold, that type of thing,” Felt said. “Sometimes, like in this case, it’s in plain sight, it’s a business with a storefront.”

Ying He denied the woman’s claims, adding that she paid her. However, when she went to show the investigator the store’s surveillance video of the incident, she closed it out and said it was malfunctioning.

Officers were able to review the footage later and saw that after a customer in his underwear went into a room, Ying He and the woman were in a hallway, apparently talking about something. At one point, He ran toward the woman but stopped right in front of her, which led the customer to briefly come into the hallway as if he heard something happen, the complaint states. After Ying He walked away, the woman tried to walk past her but He punched her in the head twice. The video then showed the woman fall to the ground after she grabbed her cellphone.

The complaint also states that police searched the business and found two sex toys in one room and a mattress in another room.

Ying He made her first court appearance on Tuesday and is scheduled to make her next one on March 20. She faces up to 20 years in prison on the prostitution charge.