UPDATE: Miao Lin was sentenced July 31 to five years of probation on one count of engaging in sex-trafficking.

When police received complaints about sex trafficking in three rooms at a St. Paul motel, they talked to a woman in one room who cried and reported “a bad person was making her do this,” according to a criminal complaint filed Monday.

The 33-year-old said, “If the girls don’t do what they are told the bad person will take revenge.” She said she had been living in California, got to Minnesota the first or second of February and was planning on staying four to five days.

She said “they are just thrown into hotels,” the complaint continued.

The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office charged Miao Lin, 40, of Chicago, with engaging in the sex trafficking of an individual.

Police responded to the Days Inn on University Avenue at Prior Avenue on Thursday because the hotel received complaints about sex trafficking happening in three rooms next to each other.

Officers conducted surveillance and saw a man leave a room at 1:13 p.m., and another man enter the room two minutes later and stay for 34 minutes. In the meantime, another man left an adjoining room.

Police found a sex advertisement online that featured Asian women and listed the Days Inn’s address. An officer sent a text message to the phone number listed in the ad, received rates for one or two girls, asked for one to perform a sex act without a condom and the offer was accepted.

Officers saw a man — identified as Lin — leave one of the rooms and go to a Toyota 4Runner with Illinois license plates associated with the rooms’ occupants, the complaint said. Police detained Lin and got a search warrant for the rooms and vehicle.

When police talked to a 36-year-old woman in one of the rooms, she said one man paid her $120 and another $130, both for massages. She said she had not performed sex acts.

The woman said she was in town for a few days from New York, had been in the U.S. between four to six months, that her family in China is sick and she needed to make money, according to the complaint. Officers noted she wore underwear and a bathrobe, and they didn’t see other clothes in the room.

The woman “didn’t know where her belongings were when asked,” the complaint said. “She thought it may be in the driver’s vehicle. She said Lin was her driver — he gave them rides to make sure they were safe.”

The other woman who said she traveled from California reported she “ran out of money and was told to perform massages,” which she did for $120, the complaint said. Officers found several opened condoms, but she denied having sexual contact with customers.

When the rooms were being held for the search warrant, the officer texted the phone number in the ad. None of the phones in the room lit up with the officer’s message, but they received messages written in Chinese. The officer then received a message telling him to go to a room, which was one of those under investigation.

“It was apparent that calls and messages placed to the ad were being answered and managed off-site,” the complaint said.

Police searched the Toyota and found a white bag — which Lin had been seen carrying to the vehicle — that contained a large amount of empty condom wrappers, the complaint said.

Officers found women’s clothing and two purses in one of the rooms. One purse contained the passport of the woman who said she had been staying in New York and $13,210 in cash, and the other purse had $6,470 in cash.

Police saw used condoms in the trash bins in the rooms.