Police have arrested an employee of a downtown massage parlor for the second time since they began investigating the location for alleged prostitution last month.

Madison police arrested an unidentified woman who was an employee of the Rising Sun massage parlor on West Main Street, near Capitol Square, on 10 charges of prostitution over the weekend. She also faces counts of bail jumping for allegedly committing the prostitution offenses while on bail for a different incident where she reportedly left her daughter with a pedophile. 

MPD declined to comment further on the arrest at press time.

On Oct. 20, MPD raided the massage parlor in connection with an investigation about the sexual assault of a 9-year-old Madison girl. Not long after the raid, police arrested the parlor’s owner, Charles Prindiville, in Middleton on illegal weapons charges.

Employees at Rising Sun declined interview requests from The Badger Herald, citing a “no soliciting” policy. However, the establishment continued to operate, offering massages as of Sunday evening.

Businesses near the Rising Sun also declined to comment on the developments. Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said he has never communicated with the owners of Rising Sun throughout his entire tenure on the City Council, despite its prominent location less than a block from the Capitol. He added he has never received any complaints for downtown residents about the establishment.

Verveer said he was surprised to hear Rising Sun was still operating since he believed they would have shut their doors after MPD’s investigation last month. He also said he does not recall any prostitution charges being filed against any Rising Sun employees.

“I had assumed that the police had had taken away so much of their stuff…and that the owner would realize that there’s an active criminal investigation,” Verveer said.

MPD have previously said prostitution downtown has decreased since the 1970s and relocated to the online sex for sale industry. In 2007, police arrested 12 men for participating in a prostitution ring on Badger Road on the city’s south side.

“When people think of prostitution, they think of ladies of the night standing on the street corner and johns circling the block over and over,” Verveer said. “As far as I know there were never really any complaints about the Rising Sun because it was behind closed doors on a commercial block.”

– The Associated Press contributed to this report.