HOUSTON – The Harris County Attorney’s Office is hoping to permanently shut down a building along the Gulf Freeway where investigators say women have been prostituting themselves.
The boarded-up building at 7711 Gulf Freeway has been known as the Miyun Modeling Studio, operated for the past eight to nine years by a woman named Yun Pak. HPD has visited the building several times through the years, even arresting Pak in May 2013. However, since then the prostitution allegedly has continued.
“There have been a lot of relatives who catch their husbands,” Geneva Godinez, who lives across the street, said.
According to Julie Countiss of the Harris County Attorney’s Office, Pak would charge men between $50 to $200 just to enter the building.
“A lot of times they'll have a camera over the door on the outside and often times they'll have a doorbell because they want to know who's coming in,” Countiss said.
For now the building is closed, following Countiss' filing of a civil lawsuit against Pak and the landlord. She is seeking a permanent injunction in which the defendants would have to stop any prostitution operations on the property. If they violate a temporary or permanent injunction order, they could face fines between $1,000 and $10,000.
Godinez was relieved to hear of the action being taken by the Harris County Attorney’s Office.
“We were trying to sell our house and just because of that place, the value of the house went down,” Godinez said.