Motel Owner Accused of Abetting Prostitution

The owner-manager of the Fiesta Motel in Garden Grove was arrested Friday on suspicion of operating a house of prostitution, the first time Garden Grove police have arrested a motel owner on such a charge.

Vice officers quietly led Fan Chen Kung, 57, of La Palma from the motel, at 12550 Lampson Ave., to a squad car shortly before 3 p.m. as his wife and 33-year-old son watched.

He was booked at Orange County Jail on suspicion of felony pimping, misdemeanor “keeping a house of ill fame for the purpose of prostitution activity” and maintaining a disorderly house, also a misdemeanor. Bail was set at $25,000 police said.

The arrest marks an attempt to reduce prostitution on Harbor Boulevard from Chapman to Western avenues, Lt. Ken Adair said. Police made 101 prostitution arrests in 1984 in that area, he said.

Suspect Called a Problem

Adair said Kung “had been a problem to Garden Grove for a considerable length of time. He has been warned before.”

Adair said the investigation began two weeks ago when a prostitute told police that Kung had been allowing prostitutes to live in the motel and charging them $6 to $10 a day in additional rent. The regular rent, depending on the season, is $21 to $26 a day.

Adair said that 21 prostitutes were living in the motel and that Kung had been involved in this activity for at least three years.

Kung’s 33-year-old son, Murray, denied that prostitutes were allowed in the motel. Visibly shaken, he said the arrest was “totally a mistake. We don’t know what’s happening.”

Previous Police Visit

The younger Kung, who manages the motel with his father, said police had been at the motel only once before. Two months ago they arrested a guest suspected of dealing drugs.

Kung said his parents have owned the motel since June, 1981. Originally from Taiwan, they have been in the United States for five years, he said.

Adair said a prostitute who had been arrested led police to the motel. A female police officer posing as a prostitute lived in a room at the motel for three days. Male police officers, posing as customers, “made it appear that she was busy,” Adair said. “She was confronted by Kung, (who) asked for money.”

Police said that if Kung is convicted on the pimping charge, they will attempt to close down the motel under the state’s red light abatement law. The law, passed in 1953, allows authorities to shut down places of prostitution as public nuisances for up to one year.

“The law provides us with the capability to hold property for a year,” Adair said. “The business (Fiesta) can continue to operate until (we) are able to convict Kung.”

If convicted, Kung could be receive a sentence of 18 months to two years in jail.