CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. -- A Chesterfield County judge ruled a spa employee charged with a sex crime must stay in jail because he was an “extreme risk to the community.”
Zeng Huicheng, 44 of Chesterfield, was charged with sexual battery by a massage therapist after police said a female client was sexually assaulted at Unique Foot Relaxing Spa on Robious Road on February 5. Police said Huicheng did not have a massage license.
A Chesterfield judge previously granted Huicheng a bond with certain conditions including electronic home monitoring and was ordered not to work at a spa.
The Chesterfield Commonwealth’s Attorney appealed that decision, and a bond appeal hearing was held in Circuit Court on Friday.
Huicheng appeared via video conference and the court spoke to him through a translator speaking Mandarin.
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Ethan Wiley said Huicheng was a Chinese citizen who lived in New York for nine years before moving to Virginia about a year ago.
Wiley told the court that Huicheng moved to Chesterfield solely to work at the Robious Road spa.
The prosecution said it was not appropriate for the defendant to return to his work based on the facts of the case and called Huicheng an “extreme risk to the community.”
Wiley said Huicheng and the other spa employees all live at the same Cambria Cove Boulevard address on the condition of their employment.
If released, he argued, Huicheng wouldn’t be able to stay at the same address because he wouldn't be able to work at the spa. He also said Huicheng was a danger to the female employees living in the home.
A Zillow.com report showed the home listed at $673,000 in a neighborhood near Swift Creek Reservoir. Property records match the homeowner to the individual who holds the spa business license. CBS 6 visited the home on Monday but no one answered the door.
Huicheng's defense attorney and public defender Will Warriner argued that this was the first bond appeal hearing he's ever attended where the Commonwealth did not mention the suspect’s criminal history, of which there is none.
However, Wiley told Circuit Court Judge Steven McCallum that Huicheng is a suspect in two other violation complaints and investigations at the spa. He is only charged for the February 5 incident.
Police previously reported that this is the second sexual assault complaint at the spa in the last eight months.
Judge McCallum denied Huicheng bond calling him a “substantial risk of flight” with a “tenuous connection” to Chesterfield.
Huicheng is due back in court on April 1.
This is a developing story, so anyone with more information can email newstips@wtvr.com to send a tip.
