Massage Heights customer awarded $3.3M in assault

Dozens of customers had been groped and sexually assaulted during massages at a storefront spa chain, lawyers said. It was time for someone to hold Massage Heights accountable for neglect of customers’ safety, they told a jury last week.

The Harris County jury responded Friday by awarding a customer $3.3 million in damages following a 2017 assault during a 90-minute session at a now-shuttered business in The Woodlands. The licensed therapist who provided the massage is serving an 18-year term in prison.

“Massage Heights Franchising knew its customers were getting raped and brutalized and chose to do nothing,” said attorney Anjali Nigam, who represents the customer, a 53-year-old mother of three. “This verdict sends a signal that you must protect your customers from known dangers.”

A spokesperson for San Antonio-based Massage Heights Franchising said, “We respect the jury’s verdict and appreciate the time the jurors spent on this case. While we disagree with the jury’s assessment … we are very confident in our attorneys and look forward to the next phase of the legal process.”

The company’s statement said, “We will continue to do everything possible to equip our franchisees with tools and resources to keep guests and members safe.” It continued: “The safety and wellbeing of our guests is and always has been our highest priority and we take sexual misconduct very seriously.”

A Hearst Newspapers investigation this year identified at least 24 reports that Massage Heights therapists across the U.S. had made sexual contact with clients since 2010. Lawyers in the civil suit said they have documented more than 50 allegations of sexual misconduct at Massage Heights businesses across the U.S.

The jury deliberated for about a day before finding Massage Heights culpable of gross negligence for failing to properly train and supervise an employee who is now incarcerated and failing to protect patrons like the woman who trusted the spa enough to pay to lie naked beneath sheets in a windowless room with one of its staffers.

Hearst Newspapers does not name victims of sexual assault.

On the witness stand, the spa chain’s co-founder and president, Shane Evans, did not dispute the chain had received more than 50 reports of sexual contact with customers.

The Massage Heights therapist, Mario Rubio, was convicted by a Montgomery County jury of digitally penetrating the customer. The civil jury on Friday effectively confirmed the woman’s contention that the franchise owner, Eric Oliver, and the chain had a history of skirting blame following a string of assaults at its franchises.

Witnesses said the spa company had a pattern of being slow to act when employees at its franchises crossed the line. Evans did not terminate these franchises’ licenses and continued to sell franchises to Oliver after his spas across the country were cited in a dozen previous sexual assault allegations, according to testimony.

The company’s lawyers said the assault was horrible and there’s no question it happened but noted that Oliver’s Woodlands franchise failed to properly report a prior assault by Rubio. The parent company had no indication Rubio was a problem, lawyers said.

He said the parent company gives its franchises the tools to run its spas, but executives had no control over Alden Bridge spa’s day-to-day hiring, firing and training of employees like Rubio.

The jurors found the business and franchise did not do enough to protect the customer from the attack. Scott told the jury in his closing argument that the company was duty bound to discipline employees who violate its well articulated policy of “zero tolerance” for sexual assault.

The jury determined the parent company in San Antonio should shoulder $1.8 million in punitive damages and 15 percent of another $1.5 million they awarded to the customer for pain and suffering she endured.

Massage Heights Franchises said following the verdict its “brand institutes numerous safety protocols that franchisees are expected to follow,” including hiring licensed therapists, checking references and criminal backgrounds and requiring therapists to participate in continuing education training every two years. The parent company said its franchises are now equipped with alert buttons so customers can terminate a massage during a treatment.