A 41-year-old hair salon owner in Concord arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting at least one victim inside his business has been charged with rape, police announced Thursday.
Chi Ngoc Vu, owner of Chi Hair Salon on Clayton Road, was arrested on Monday for multiple counts of sexual assault, police said.
Investigators said a mother in 2021 dropped her teenage daughter off at the salon for a three-hour hair treatment and she was raped by Vu.
"There’s a day in the salon that he works completely by himself and that’s when the suspected assaults occurred," Concord police Sgt. Chris Souza said. "None of them were suspected to have occurred when there were any other workers there."
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Vu’s co-workers said they simply don’t believe it. They added the Pittsburg father isn’t capable of what he’s being charged with. They didn’t want to appear on camera and asked NBC Bay Area to alter their voices during their interview.
“I stand behind him 100%, 1,000%,” a co-worker said. “He’s a very good person and he’s very wonderful with his clients. So, I don’t see him being like that.”
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Vu’s co-workers also questioned why it took so long for the girl to come forward.
“It’s ridiculous. After all this time, why is it happening now?" a co-worker said. "When something like that happens, it should be brought to somebody’s attention right away."
Police said victims of trauma often don’t come forward right away. They added their investigation has uncovered more potential victims who aren’t minors.
“We were able to find through our investigatory means ways to get a hold of some clients of his hair salon who came and talked to us and told us their stories as to what happened inside this hair salon, and we are continuing to investigate their accusations against the subject,” Souza said.
According to police, the district attorney's office has received the case and filed the following charges against Vu: forcible rape, unlawful sexual intercourse, forcible oral copulation, oral copulation of a minor under the age of 16 and lewd acts on a child.
As of Thursday, Vu was in custody on $275,000 bail, police said.
Police are asking anyone who may have been victimized by Vu to call Concord police Detective Huffmaster at 925-671-5080.
