Massage Figure Says Police Faked Charge

In the simple words of the court, it was in the “interest of justice” that a charge of soliciting prostitution was dropped Tuesday against a Huntington Beach massage parlor owner and operator of a state-licensed school of massage.

“Interest of justice?” asked an incredulous Roland Clark, who pointed out that he was dining on lobster with friends at a Mexican resort the night a Huntington Beach police informant accused him of soliciting an act of prostitution at a massage parlor on Beach Boulevard. “You mean it (the court document) didn’t say police screw-up?”

‘Police Did Not Play Fair’

Clark, 51, who last week filed a $10-million lawsuit against the Huntington Beach Police Department charging false arrest and defamation of character, added: “Naturally, I’m pleased that all the charges have been dropped. But that’s all I’m pleased about. . . . The police did not play fair. They have violated my constitutional rights by literally fabricating an entire case.”

The incident dates back to Aug. 10, when an unpaid police informant, Maxine Jones, was working undercover at the Spa of Hawaii. Jones told vice squad officers that Clark signed in for a massage at the dark, three-cubicle parlor and proceeded to insist that she have oral sex with him for money.

Jones said she refused and that “Clark became very angry, jumped up from the massage table” got dressed and left, slamming the doors behind him.

Three weeks later on Sept. 3, while Clark was teaching a class at his California College of Physical Arts on Beach Boulevard, Huntington Beach police arrested him on suspicion of soliciting an act of prostitution and led him away in handcuffs.

Clark pleaded innocent. At an administrative hearing on Sept. 26 where he was appealing the city’s decision to revoke his massage parlor permit because of his arrest, Jones’ story unraveled.

The sign-in sheets at the Spa of Hawaii did not bear Clark’s name. And several witnesses testified that Clark was among a group of 12 people spending the weekend at La Fonda, a seaside resort between Rosarito Beach and Ensenada, on Aug. 10.

Following the hearing, the Police Department canceled the revocation of his license for the Town and Country Spa massage parlor. The department then wrote a letter to the Orange County district attorney’s office saying it believed a “reasonable doubt exists in this case and recommends that the charges be dismissed in the interest of justice.”

Bill Sage, the legal counsel for the Police Department, said Tuesday that the department also recommended that Clark petition the court to seal and destroy his arrest records so that his name would be cleared.

Former Drug User

Sage described Jones, 38, as a former drug user who had decided to rehabilitate herself by volunteering at the Police Department. He said she had been “extremely helpful” in other cases but will not be used by the department until the Clark incident is resolved.

“It appears that the person who fingered him . . . was mistaken about the identity of the perpetrator . . . ,” Sage said. “We are all very puzzled.”

Clark, however, said he was singled out because he has been the city’s main advocate of therapeutic massage and has lobbied the City Council each time the Police Department proposed to regulate the industry. In 1980, Clark said, he successfully sued the city in U.S. District Court in protest of what he termed an “overly restrictive” city ordinance that he said would have ultimately put all 11 of the city’s massage parlors out of business.

“I’ve never been anti-police in my life,” Clark said Tuesday. “But I’m very anti-Huntington Beach vice department methods.”

Clark said he has suffered embarrassment among his friends and family and financial losses since his arrest was publicized.

“This is just not a violation of me personally,” Clark said. “It’s a violation of every person in the United States. Police departments cannot go around manufacturing evidence that is not there.”

Huntington Beach police officials said Tuesday that the department has asked the special investigation unit of the district attorney’s office to determine whether there was any deliberate falsification of Jones’ testimony or if there was evidence that the police had anything to do with “putting her up to it.”

“Clark alleges a conspiracy,” said Lt. Barry Price of the department’s vice squad. “But that is somewhat ludicrous as far I’m concerned.”