Chattanooga hypnosis clinics were fronts for prostitution, police say

Chattanooga police raided a business front used for prostitution Wednesday afternoon at 6925 Shallowford Road Suite 308. Crime Suppression Unit Investigators Curtis Penny, left, and Kenneth Blue, right, escort 22-year-old Kimberly J. Chacon, center, out in handcuffs. Chacon, of New Jersey, faces one count of prostitution within 1.5 miles of a school.

Two men appeared to be in their 50s. One nervously kept glancing out the window of a suite in the Fountain Plaza office complex, then turned and buried his head in hands. A few women half his age sat nearby. Some retreated to the floor out of view. The youngest was 19; one of them was two months pregnant.

Moments earlier Wednesday Chattanooga police had raided a hypnosis treatment center business they say was used as a front for prostitution.

Of the five women inside Hypnosis for Power, two of them were charged — 22-year-old Kimberly Chacon with prostitution and 25-year-old Suzanna Gregory with promoting prostitution. A male client was cited for prostitution, records show.

“We get a good bit of prostitution off of Backpage and the local Internet sites,” Chattanooga police Chief Bobby Dodd said Wednesday. “Most of the time it is people traveling through here. Having them set up as a permanent business, that’s not as common.”