Prostitution-Front Suspect Was Considered Top Officer : Investigation: Evaluations of Sheriff’s Sgt. Dennis Hartman were glowing through the years, but now he’s thought to have been operating a massage parlor offering sex.

Year after year, the evaluations of Sgt. Dennis Hartman of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department have been nothing if not glowing.

“Generates good will,” one of his evaluations read. “Promotes cooperation,” said another. “Very conscientious,” “Quiet competence” and “Balanced maturity and zeal” were three other descriptions.

So satisfied were his supervisors with Hartman’s performance that he moved easily through routine jobs at patrol stations in Imperial Beach, Alpine, Santee, the Las Colinas jail and homicide before settling in the prestigious undercover world of criminal intelligence.

Even to an agency that is growing numb to the shock of deputy misconduct, especially in the past year, the news that Hartman, a 23-year veteran, is suspected of running a massage parlor that catered to acts of prostitution, is genuinely stunning.

“The Sgt. Hartman I know is well thought of in our department,” said Capt. Bob Apostolos of the Encinitas sheriff’s station. “I hope for his sake and for the sake of his family that all of this is not true.”

For the past two months, after receiving a tip that a law enforcement official may have been involved in a prostitution business, three officers and a sergeant from the La Mesa Police Department have been watching Yung Acupressure in a strip shopping center of four businesses on University Avenue.

They sent undercover officers into the establishment, who were shown to back rooms by women who indicated that sex was available, said Lt. Mike Wolfe, who supervised the operation.

Police also watched Hartman walk inside the massage parlor “on more than one occasion,” but never as a customer. Wolfe says they have evidence that Hartman “controlled and operated” Yung Accupressure.

The evidence has not been strong enough, however, to result in Hartman’s arrest and he is simply a suspect in the case. Although he was relieved of his regular duties until the criminal investigation and an internal department probe are completed, Hartman is still being paid.

Two others have been arrested. Yuk Rye Godfrey, 33, of La Mesa worked as a massage technician and was arrested for two counts of prostitution. Yang Kang Brannon, 50, who police said led customers to the back rooms, was arrested on two counts of pimping.

La Mesa police originally said both women were named Godfrey but later said they had erred when listing one of the names. Two other women were questioned at the massage parlor but later released.

No other officer is involved with the business or has solicited prostitutes at that location, police said.

The massage parlor is owned by Unyong (Sandy) Hall, who lives with Hartman in East San Diego, near the La Mesa city limit. Hartman recently divorced his wife, Barbara, who is a secretary to the sheriff’s community relations director and used to work directly for Sheriff Jim Roache.

Hall, also a suspect in the case, was paralyzed in a freak accident last July after her unoccupied car shifted into gear and ran over her in front of her house. Since then, police say, Hartman has been running the massage parlor. Hartman could not be reached for comment this week.

One day after Hartman was first listed as a suspect in the prostitution business, police declined to publicly measure the extent that the sergeant was involved in running Yung Acupressure.

Sources close to the investigation said that, although enough evidence has been compiled to place Hartman under arrest, members of the district attorney’s office special operations unit are investigating other leads that would make their case against Hartman more solid.

The district attorney’s office has not always been successful in prosecuting police officers for criminal activities and is making sure they have exhausted all leads in investigating Hartman, sources said.

By making the arrest now, they said, Hartman would have to be given a preliminary hearing within 60 days. One police source said the officer might not even be arrested within two months, as investigators begin to delve into his personal finances.

Law enforcement officials said both the Sheriff’s Department and the La Mesa police decided to release Hartman’s name as a suspect even though he had not been arrested because search warrants had been served at his home, office and the massage parlor, and word was bound to leak out anyway.

A day after Hartman was named a suspect, deputies were still trying to sort out the specifics. Capt. Apostolos, who had been on a retreat in Laguna Beach and had not heard the news, refused to believe it at first when told about it by a reporter.

He openly wondered whether the Sheriff’s Department, reeling from other such instances of alleged or actual deputy misconduct, could take much more.

Sheriff’s assistant Dan Greenblat said: “There is real disbelief and shock as to how this could have happened to someone so well-regarded.”