Massage therapist gets probation

Suspect accused of sexually assaulting a woman in her SCV house

A massage therapist accused of assaulting a woman at her Santa Clarita home last year was sentenced to three years’ probation Wednesday after pleading no contest to assault.

Daniel Holbert, 49, of Burbank, appeared Wednesday in San Fernando Superior Court where he pleaded no contest to one count of assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury, Ricardo Santiago, spokesman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said Wednesday.

“He was sentenced to three years’ probation and ordered to register as a sex offender during the probationary period,” Santiago said.

According to prosecutors, Holbert worked as a massage therapist out of a North Hollywood gym.

On Aug. 23, he was arrested by detectives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Special Victims Bureau.

According to the news release issued by prosecutors at the time of his arrest, the victim initially met the suspect at the G Train Fitness Gym located in North Hollywood, where Holbert allegedly treated the victim for pain.

After several massage therapy sessions at the gym, the suspect allegedly suggested to the victim that he conduct future therapy sessions at either his residence or hers, which would give the victim privacy that the gym setting could not provide.

The victim agreed, as the suspect had been acting appropriately during all of the previous sessions at the gym, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

On March 12, 2016, Holbert went to the victim’s home in Santa Clarita for a scheduled massage therapy appointment. As this therapy session evolved, the suspect allegedly sexually assaulted the victim.

Holbert was initially charged with on one felony count of sexual penetration by a foreign object by fraudulent representation, Deputy District Attorney Emily Cole said in news release issued in September 2016.