Pleasant Hill police: Home transformed into brothel

PLEASANT HILL, Calif. -- An East Bay man accused of running a modeling business to recruit women into prostitution has been arrested.

Police said what appeared to be a typical home on the outside, was a strip club, and brothel inside.

Neighbors on Mesa Verde Place were shocked to hear about the human trafficking allegations.

Officers entered posing as potential clients when they entered the home. They said it didn't take long to figure out what was really going on.

Dominic Salazar, 54, pleaded not guilty to the human trafficking charges against him, but Pleasant Hill police said he was running a brothel out of his home.

Two undercover officers went to the house on an anonymous tip. "The living room had been converted into a club-like environment with massage tables, stripper pole, bar, things like that and that they were able to confirm that they were offering sexual acts for money," Pleasant Hill Police Department Sgt. Ron Priebe said.

Police say Salazar recruited a number of women through the disguise of a modeling business.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Salazar was owner and president of Mad Girls Fitness.

Neighbors say Salazar drove a van that appeared to be connected to the company. "It was a gray van and apparently on the side it written like, 'watch girls wrestle in mud and dance' and it was just really crazy," neighbor Jamie Grisar said.

Yet neighbors say while they found the van strange, they never noticed an unusual number of men or women coming in and out of the home, just maybe more parked cars than what's typically found on a quiet cul de sac. "This is supposed to be a family neighborhood and we came to the suburbs so we can have a quieter life, not that," neighbor Rochelle Grisar said.

Salazar remains in custody on $250,000 bail. His next appearance in court is scheduled for June 28.