WICHITA, Kan. (AP) A federal grand jury has amended the charges against a massage parlor owner and his wife accused of sex trafficking in Wichita.
The four-count indictment returned Tuesday charges Gary Kidgell and Yan Zhang with sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion. One count also charges Kidgell with harboring for financial gain an immigrant who was in the country unlawfully.
The couple is charged with recruiting women to come to Wichita to work at massage parlors, then coercing them into prostitution. A woman who worked for them has pleaded guilty to a harboring count.
The amended indictment makes moot a defense request to dismiss two of the counts over the government’s earlier failure to specify that the alleged conduct was related to interstate commerce.
Trial remains set for Jan. 14.
