Women describe massage assaults
Franchises were slow to address abuse, they say
Tempe Massage Envy employees didn’t call police or file a regulatory complaint after customer Beth Fox reported that her massage therapist, Gabriel Lopez, had sexually assaulted her in 2014.
The response from Massage Envy employees was essentially, “We will talk to him and you should leave,” Fox told The Arizona Republic. “I was the one who had to call the licensing board and the police. If I hadn’t done those things, would he still be practicing and assaulting other people?”
Fox is among the dozen women who have filed lawsuits over sexual abuse against at least eight Phoenix-area Massage Envy franchises since 2005, according to an investigation by The
Republic. Numerous other allegations have been made against the Scottsdale-based company nationwide.
The Arizona State Board of Massage Therapy is looking into two additional complaints made within the past month involving locations in Glendale and Chandler, The Republic has learned.
In the Tempe case, Lopez pleaded guilty to one charge of attempted sexual abuse. Fox is suing him in civil court,
along with the Massage Envy franchise owner.
In another case, Gilbert Massage Envy employees in 2007 kept a 52-yearold woman in a room away from her husband and other customers and blocked her from reporting to police that massage therapist Lee Wells Jr. had penetrated her twice with his finger, according to court statements filed by the victim.
Wells was sentenced to two years in prison, and the woman won a civil settlement.
In another case more than a decade ago, an unlicensed Massage Envy therapist, Charles Vasquez, is believed to have assaulted as many as 15 people before being caught and convicted.
But there are likely more victims of massage therapists.
Not all cases are easily found because some Massage Envy franchises operate under different business names. Several lawsuits mention victims who did not want to go public. And additional cases have been reported at massage businesses besides Massage Envy.
It appears that none of the accused therapists continues to work at Massage Envy, and almost all have seen their licenses revoked.
One, who was never criminally charged, now practices at a different Phoenix massage company.
Across the nation, at least 180 people have filed sexual-assault lawsuits, police reports or complaints with state licensing boards against Massage Envy franchises, employees and the company, according to a BuzzFeed News investigation.
Fox said she is speaking out to compel the billion-dollar company and other massage businesses to improve their training and reporting policies.
“The expectation shouldn’t be that you have to protect yourself or go online and look up a massage therapist’s license,” she said. “You should be able to walk into a business and trust that the professional is going to do their job without assaulting you.”
Massage Envy CEO Joseph Magnacca said Thursday that the company had taken action in the wake of media coverage by requiring its 1,170 franchise locations, including 39 in Arizona, to review corporate safety and reporting standards and has hired a third-party backgrounding company to re-screen each of its 20,000 licensed massage therapists.
He said the company soon will announce a plan to improve its policies and “make meaningful change in this industry.”
“I, like so many of you, continue to be sickened and so disheartened by the stories that have recently been published about sexual misconduct at Massage Envy franchise locations,” Magnacca wrote in an email to customers. “We have zero tolerance for this type of behavior and to those who suffered, I am deeply sorry.”
Lopez, the Tempe massage therapist, had treated Fox before with no incidents, she said. But at one appointment, he touched her lips, pulled down the sheet covering her and placed his mouth on her nipple.
Fox, 37, stopped him and told him to leave. Twice more, Lopez, 40, tried to massage her and she told him to go.
“‘I’m really sorry. I (messed) up,’ ” she recalled he said, pleading that he needed to keep his job.
When the mother of two alerted the Tempe Massage Envy manager, the manager told Fox the company had a “zero tolerance policy” but couldn’t specify what that meant. Fox left, called the police and returned to find the manager had sent Lopez home.
Massage Envy never reported the incident to the Arizona State Board of Massage Therapy, according to board officials. The regulatory agency revoked Lopez’s massage license several months later, after which he was terminated.
A DNA swab of Fox’s breast confirmed her complaint. Lopez pleaded guilty and was sentenced last year to 30 days in jail and 10 years of probation. He was not required to register as a sex offender. Fox calls that too lenient. She is suing the Massage Envy franchise owner and Lopez in civil court.
Lopez’s civil attorney and the Tempe Massage Envy owner did not return calls seeking comment.
The Gilbert woman, who asked that
she not be named, said she immediately told massage therapist Lee Wells Jr. in 2007 that she was not comfortable with the way he was touching her, according to court records.
While massaging her thigh, he put his fingers inside her underwear and penetrated her twice.
After she expressed discomfort, he laid on top of her in a hug, apologized and asked her not to tell anyone.
“I said, ‘Get off of me and get out of this room,’” the woman told The Republic.
When she tried to report the incident to Massage Envy employees, they refused to interrupt her husband’s massage, placed her alone in a back room so other customers would not see her upset and turned away police who had responded to the woman’s call, court documents show.
Her husband had to call police again and ask them to return.
“Their whole thing was to protect their employee. They told him to leave. … They told me, ‘We’ll give you lifetime massages.’ And I was like, ‘No, thank you,’ ” she recalled to The Republic. “I didn’t feel supported by them at all.”
Afterward, she suffered from crying
spells, depression, fear of being alone and physical issues, leaving her less able to take care of her children, she told the court.
Wells admitted to police that he had engaged in sexual intercourse with previous clients at the business, police records said. The civil lawsuit the Gilbert woman filed claimed Massage Envy knew about prior incidents of “an unwelcome sexual nature” involving him.
Wells surrendered his license and was sentenced in a 2008 plea agreement to two years in prison, lifetime probation and registering as a sex offender. He served another three years for violating probation by having sexual contact with a minor and was released in July.
Massage Envy settled with the Gilbert woman.
Wells and the former Gilbert Massage Envy owner did not respond to messages left at phone numbers and email addresses that appeared to belong to them in the past. A message sent to a Facebook account that appeared to belong to the former franchisee also went unanswered.
The Gilbert woman said she is glad that more people are speaking up about sexual assault now, but she hopes they will do it sooner than later.
“It could have saved problems for other people if they had,” she said. “I know it’s a hard thing, and they (authorities) don’t make it easy . ... (But) that’s the only way you can stop it.”
A sometimes intimidating complaint process at the Arizona licensing board may complicate victims’ efforts to stop abusers, Fox said.
When the five-member board considers revoking someone’s license, the accused massage therapist may crossexamine the accuser if the therapist has not chosen to retain an attorney to handle witness questioning.
Though Lopez did not show up to his hearings, Fox said she watched someone else be questioned.
“He actually got to sit and interrogate this poor woman who is trying to speak on her own behalf,” Fox said. “It’s just two people sitting at tables very close to each other, and that’s terrifying.”
A board official said the administrative hearing process assures that the board hears both sides.
“Just like a Criminal Proceeding, it can be uncomfortable for both parties, but we have to (be) fair and judge both sides of the table,” board investigator Andrew White said in an email.
Ryan Edmonson, the agency’s newly appointed executive director, said he wants to do more to persuade accused therapists to give up their licenses quickly instead of going to a revocation hearing, which can take up to four months.
“If somebody’s willing to give up their license, you might as well stop them from practicing sooner than later,” Edmonson said.
The incentive for therapists, he said, would be to avoid what he called the “embarrassing” ritual of hearing accusations dissected in public and to receive a final ruling that describes their actions generally, such as “touched inappropriately,” instead of noting specific acts.
Asked if the watered-down language would let abusers off the hook, Edmonson said the full description of the incident would be available through a public-records request and the end result of therapists losing their licenses would be the same.
“It’s still doing the same damage,” he said, “but saying it without being supergraphic about how it took place.”
Incomplete records are another problem in addressing assault complaints, said Sara Powell, Fox’s attorney.
Arizona Massage Therapy Board officials for years refused to acknowledge any complaints if investigations of them were ongoing. Questioned by The
Republic about the legality of that policy, Edmonson, who became director about a month ago, said he would reverse it.
Last month, officials told The Republic there were no current complaints against Massage Envy or its employees in Arizona.
Edmonson later acknowledged his agency is investigating two complaints involving the company or its employees.
He is making other changes to increase transparency, Edmonson said. By the end of the year, for instance, all disciplinary actions will be put online.
But some information still will be unavailable.
The Arizona licensing board, for example, doesn’t keep records of how many complaints have been made at massage locations across the state because it is tasked with regulating therapists, not companies.
The agency also doesn’t keep records of where therapists previously worked. Even current business addresses for therapists are often out of date, Edmonson acknowledged.