CASE OF INTEREST

Date: July 19, 2007

Case: People v. Jesus DeLeon, Case Number 06F03259

Contact: Deputy District Attorney Valerie Brown
             (916) 874-6551


District Attorney Jan Scully announced that Jesus (“Jesse”) DeLeon was sentenced by Judge Russell Hom to 3 years in state prison for his role in a prostitution ring being operated out of a business known as Cancun Tanning. Additionally, the District Attorney’s Asset Forfeiture Unit was able to seize more than $300,000 of illegal profits from Mr. DeLeon. This is the largest forfeiture in a prostitution case in Sacramento County under the California Control of Profits of Organized Crime Act.

Cancun Tanning, located at 9276 Greenback Lane in Orangevale, was owned by Mr. DeLeon and licensed as a tanning salon. When male patrons visited, they had to pay a fee to get beyond the reception area. Once in one of the back private rooms, the patrons were offered a choice of several sexual acts, for which additional fees were collected. In reality, none of the tanning beds at Cancun were even operational.

Megan Ann Reed managed the day-to-day operations of Cancun, which was outfitted with devices to detect if anyone entering was wearing a transmitter such as those often used by undercover officers. Ms. Reed was convicted of being an accessory to a felony and sentenced last month to one year in the county jail and five years of probation.

Amber Spence-DeLeon, Jesse DeLeon’s common-law wife, was Cancun’s corporate officer and actively participated in running the prostitution business by collecting the proceeds and shuttling documents and financial records for Mr. DeLeon. Ms. Spence-DeLeon was convicted of being an accessory to a felony and sentenced to serve six months in the county jail and five years of probation.

Mr. DeLeon has also been associated with two other businesses in Sacramento County that were closed down by law enforcement due to prostitution activities. Those businesses were Mandalay Tanning Studio and Chalet Tanning and Massage.

According to Deputy District Attorney Valerie Brown, “Mr. DeLeon had established sophisticated business practices and procedures that successfully shielded him from criminal accountability for several years. His ultimate conviction and forfeiture was made possible in large part by the extensive investigation and surveillance conducted by detectives in the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Special Investigations Bureau.”