A Civilian Suffolk police employee received the department civilian award Friday after cracking the case of a Chinese national arrested for prostitution.

May Wan, who speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese, spoke with the woman for hours and found she fled China because authorities there were beating her for handing out pamphlets about Christianity. Police say the woman was trafficked to San Francisco to work in a restaurant before being sent to Suffolk where she was forced to work as a prostitute in a massage parlor.

According to investigators, threats were made to the woman?s family in China if she cooperated with police and authorities here. The woman was told she would be deported and that harm would come to her children.

Suffolk police have dropped the criminal charges against the woman, but it is expected that she will be deported back to China.