Woman Pleads Not Guilty of Staging Robbery

The owner of a Temecula massage parlor pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of faking a robbery.

Yi "Candy" Zhang, 51, entered the pleas at an arraignment hearing at the Southwest Justice Center in French Valley, according to court records.

Zhang allegedly called the sheriff's department on March 6 to report that three masked men -- one with a gun -- barged into her business, Pacific Massage, forced her into a back room and stole several hundred dollars in cash and two computers.

One of the robbers entered a massage room, Zhang told officials, held up a patron of the business and stole his wallet with $60 and credit cards inside, according to sheriff's Investigator Brett Devine.

But when sheriff's officials reviewed the surveillance footage, it told a very different story, Devine wrote in a search warrant affidavit.

"In the video, it was apparent Ms. Zhang knew the suspects as she embraced (one of the suspects) and pulled her face closely to his," the investigator wrote. "She also did not appear to be under any duress in the video and at times, she directed the suspects to various rooms inside the business as to assist them with locating cash/goods."

Zhang was released after pleading on $30,000 bail.