The San Diego City Attorney’s Office is suing to shut down a Linda Vista massage parlor that allegedly offered and promoted prostitution at the business, it was announced Thursday.
The lawsuit brought against Comfy Spa, located at 5201 Linda Vista Road, Suite 104, and its property owner alleges that following reports “of females possibly being held against their will and being sex trafficked” at the business, an undercover SDPD operation was conducted in which a detective was sexually propositioned by one of the parlor’s employees.
Later that month, a man who went to the parlor on his wife’s recommendation was inappropriately touched by one of the employees, the City Attorney’s Office said. Though the man reported the incident to police, he “did not wish to press charges but expressed concern about activities occurring at the business,” the lawsuit states.
The City Attorney’s Office also claims that SDPD officers found more than 250 advertisements, blogs and reviews promoting sex acts at the property.
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Comfy Spa in Linda Vista on May 28, 2026. (NBC 7 San Diego)
In addition to sex-related violations, the lawsuit alleges there were building and zoning violations at the property such as illegal conversions of the property into a residence.
The City Attorney’s Office alleges these violations persisted despite the property owner being notified of the issues on two separate occasions last year.
The lawsuit seeks a court order to shutter the business and a requirement that the defendants pay civil penalties of $2,500 per day, per violation, as well as investigative costs.
“This case is about protecting our community and the vulnerable people who are exploited inside operations like this one,” said City Attorney Heather Ferbert in a statement. “When a business hides behind a storefront to traffic in commercial sex, ignores repeated warnings, and puts the public at risk, our office will use every legal tool available to shut it down.”
The case is complaint-driven. Undercover officers have made arrests for prostitution here and responded to a customer complaint of sexual assault leveled at one of the therapists.
Business neighbor Dustin Pope says the spa always seemed suspicious.
“You’ll see older gentlemen kind of embarrassingly walking out of there,” Pope said.
In the city attorney’s estimation, massage businesses are cropping up all over San Diego and she attributes it to a number of things, including the fact that smaller communities have a better budget to address the problems. Also, she says since COVID, prostitution and trafficking have gone inside to disguise their activities.
“A lot of instances where massage parlors and we see evidence of people living there, we find that the women who are there are victims of human trafficking,” Ferbert said.
NBC 7 San Diego went inside the parlor on Thursday. NBC 7’s Dave Summers was greeted by one of the employees who did not identify herself and did not answer any of questions about the allegations.
This is the second of such injunction from the city attorney’s office in as many months. Last April, a civil suit alleged similar activities at the Osaka Oriental Spa in University Heights.
Comfy Spa remains open for business despite this latest litigation.