HARRISBURG, Pa. — A Pennsylvania appeals court says state police mishandled a prostitution investigation in which they gave a private citizen $360 so he could pay for sex at a massage parlor along with $180 for his trouble.

The Superior Court opinion Thursday upheld a Lehigh County court ruling that threw out prostitution charges against Sun Cha Chon on the grounds that the government had acted “outrageously.” The appeals court said the man had sex with women at the Shiatsu Spa in eastern Pennsylvania on four occasions in 2006, all paid for with government funds.

Lehigh County Judge Robert Steinberg said police continued sending the informant into the massage parlor even though it wasn’t necessary to their investigation and they learned very little.