Brothel Bust Nets 21 Cops
By DON SINGLETON
Daily News Staff Writer Twenty-one Hudson County cops were sort of caught with their pants down during a late night raid on a suspected Lodi brothel, officials said yesterday. The place called itself a juice bar, but a lot of people in Lodi apparently knew what was going on. Bergen County Prosecutor William Schmidt said the Ultima Spa on Terhune Ave. was "a blight on the community." After months of complaints about the heavy traffic and heavier breathing, county, state and local authorities distracted the joint's lookout late Thursday night and moved in with a warrant. The club hadn't exactly kept itself a secret. Its ads cooed, "Let our experienced female staff spoil you in private suites complete with showers, whirlpools, hot tubs, authentic body shampoos, body scrubs, steam baths and more." "Half the state knew there was a prostitution ring going on in there, and nobody did anything about it," Lodi Mayor Gary Paparozzi complained Friday. Attorney Robert Rosenberg, representing spa president Luke Hoffman, told a local reporter that the spa is simply a private club patronized by "working guys" who come in for "massage therapy done in an adult fashion." The raiding party found 137 people, many of them off-duty cops from neighboring Hudson County, along with prostitutes from Florida. And a lot of the men and women were doing just as the prosecutor and the sheriff had suspected all along: Nude women were writhing seductively on the bar; couples were churning hot tubs into foam, and patrons were taking dancers into private rooms without Gideon Bibles. Police seized more than $500,000 and other assets of the club, Schmidt said. Several patrons were arrested on drug charges. Hoffman, 37, of New Milford, N.J., was ordered held on $200,000 bail on charges relating to promoting prostitution, as well as first-degree financial facilitation of a criminal enterprise. Elizabeth Boehmer, described as Hoffman's girlfriend, and John Easom, 43, of neighboring Garfield, were charged with promoting prostitution. None of the off-duty cops, Schmidt said, was engaging in sexual or criminal activity, so no charges were filed against them. "But their departments were notified, and their departments will take action as deemed appropriate," he said. And the officers' wives, if any, may take action of their own.

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