Lawman Ran Prostitution House, D.A.’s Probe Says

A former sergeant in the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department was responsible for the day-to-day operations of a La Mesa acupressure clinic where “full sex” services were offered, according to court documents made public Thursday.

Dennis Arthur Hartman, 55, who is married to the owner of Yung’s Acupressure on University Avenue, “knowingly allowed prostitution to occur” at the La Mesa business, investigators alleged in the court papers.

The new details about the investigation into Hartman’s connection with the business are contained in affidavits written by Michael Bishop, a district attorney’s investigator.

Hartman, a 23-year veteran of the department who sometimes used Sheriff’s Department undercover vehicles when traveling to the business, was observed “collecting mail, keeping the books of the business and making bank deposits,” Bishop wrote.

In seeking a search warrant from a judge in January, the investigator said Hartman was almost completely in charge of the business while his wife was recovering from an automobile accident.

Hartman pleaded not guilty Monday after being indicted by a special county grand jury on charges of pimping, pandering and operating a house of ill fame. He is free on his own recognizance, pending his next court appearance Oct. 22.

In an interview in January with The Times, Hartman said that although he frequently visited the business to run errands, he was unaware that it was being used for prostitution.

Hartman said he was helping his paraplegic wife, Unyong (Sandy) Hall, run the operation, calling himself “Sandy’s legs. If I had known there was prostitution going on there, I would have called the cops myself. I am a cop.”

Authorities tell a different story.

During an undercover investigation that began in November, detectives said they uncovered information that Hartman gave permission to one of the female workers to have sex for money.

When authorities searched the condominium Hartman shared with Hall, they found more than $20,000 in cash, most of it hidden in a safe in the couple’s bedroom, according to the documents. Hall and Hartman were married in December.

Financial records indicate that the couple used 22 separate accounts at six financial institutions to allegedly hide the profits of the business, a figure Bishop estimates to be at least $80,000 through 1991.

Although nine additional search warrants were served to obtain financial records, the results of those searches are not contained in court records.

Hartman, who told co-workers that his wife owned a dress shop, was a supervisor in the Criminal Intelligence Unit of the Sheriff’s Special Investigation Unit. He resigned soon after police served search warrants at the business, his home and his office at the Sheriff’s Department headquarters.

The documents unsealed Thursday show that Hall and two other employees all have prior prostitution convictions.

La Mesa police and district attorney’s investigators began investigating Hartman and the acupressure clinic after receiving a tip that employees were engaging in acts of prostitution, according to Bishop.

During the investigation, two La Mesa undercover officers were solicited for sex acts, the affidavit says. On one occasion, the worker went into an office where Hartman was working to seek approval for a specific price negotiated for a sex act, it says.