Five employees at two Kew Gardens motels considered havens for pimps and prostitutes, including ones who are underage were arrested last week after search warrants were executed at the businesses, according to the Queens District Attorney’s Office.
The Kew Motor Inn at 139-01 Grand Central Parkway and the Par Central Motor Inn, at 82-85 Parsons Blvd., both of which are located in residential areas, were shut down under the city’s nuisance abatement law.
Undercover police officers posing as prostitutes and customers had been visiting the motels since December 2011 and witnessed a variety of illegal activity, District Attorney Richard Brown said, including the defendants accepting bribes, allowing the undercover officers to rent rooms without proper identification and knowingly allowing prostitution to take place on the premises.
In some cases they even assisted in the illegal activity, according to Brown. When officers posing as prostitutes allegedly instructed the desk clerks to call their rooms when a customer arrived for them and then direct the customer to the room, they allegedly did so.
The five defendants are Par Central desk clerks Harripersa Ramjattan, Bhaskar Chaniha and Wojuech Sady, and Kew Motor Inn desk clerks Atm Raham and Masum Chowdhury.
Ramjattan, 63, of 130th Street in Jamaica, is charged with promoting prostitution, first- and second-degree falsifying business records, second-degree commercial bribe receiving and permitting prostitution. If convicted, he faces up to seven years in prison.
Chaniha, 52, of 195th Place in Jamaica, is charged with first- and second-degree falsifying business records, second-degree commercial bribe receiving and permitting prostitution. If convicted, he faces up to four years in prison.
Sady, 25, of Villa Court in Hempstead, LI is charged with promoting prostitution, second-degree commercial bribe receiving, fourth-degree promoting prostitution and permitting prostitution. If convicted, he faces up to seven years in prison.
Raham, 56, of 72st Street in Jackson Heights, is charged with promoting prostitution, first- and second-degree falsifying business records, second-degree commercial bribe receiving and permitting prostitution. If convicted, he faces up to seven years in prison.
Chowdhury, 46, of 25th Avenue in Flushing, is charged with first- and second-degree falsifying business records, second-degree commercial bribe receiving and permitting prostitution. If convicted, he faces up to four years in prison.
“These two motels have been deemed public nuisances that have generated numerous prostitution-related arrests — including those involving underage girls —during the past year and have been the subject of numerous complaints from local residents,” Brown said in a prepared statement. “The actions that we have taken this week send a clear message — businesses that allow prostitution or other illegal activity to occur on their premises are at risk of being shut down.”
The raids were the result of a multi-agency initiative by the DA’s Office, NYPD and the city Department of Buildings.
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