Hundreds of women claim they were sexually assaulted by employees working under a leading national spa, according to a report published Sunday.
Court records, police reports and interviews obtained by BuzzFeed News provide details on the alleged encounters from more than 180 women that took place at Massage Envy locations across the United States in recent years.
Some accusers said their stories were concealed after coming forward, while the company – which was ranked the third most popular chain of its kind this month – said ‘it’s not its problem to solve.’
In the shocking report, one Pennsylvania woman shared her experience, which she said took place in May 2015 at a West Chester spa she regularly visited.
Hundreds of women claim they were sexually assaulted by employees working under leading national spa, Massage Envy
Massage Envy in West Chester, Pa. is shown, where an accuser said she was sexually assaulted
Massage therapist James Deiter is shown left in his mugshot, next his his accuser Susan Ingram
Susan Ingram said she was her seventh visit recommended therapist, James Deiter, when she felt Deiter’s ‘erect penis’ push up against her body.
Ingram said she had her eyes closed before she felt the man grope her breasts and penetrate her vagina with his fingers.
In shock, she laid still on the bed until the session ended. When she got in her car to drove home, she started to cry.
After reporting the incident to the spa manager, Ingram had been refused help.
When she asked the manager to remove the woman from the room where another session was taking place with Deiter, the manager told her ‘she could not do that.’
Investigation revealed Deiter telling police he needed ‘help.’
The following year, he would plead guilty to molesting ‘nine women while working at Massage Envy’ from 2014 to 2015, the report said.
Daeshawn Bullard (shown left in his mugshot) was arrested for sexually assaulting Danielle Dick (right)
In a separate 2015 assault that took place in October in Virginia, Danielle Dick said therapist, Daeshawn Bullard, put his fingers in her vagina and told her the sexual encounter would be their ‘little secret.’
When she informed a manager, Dick said they looked ‘like a deer in headlights.’
The manager called her the next day to inform her she would not be charged for her massage that was described as an ‘unhappy experience’ for the customer.
‘Then they went back to business as usual, and my entire life was turned over,’ Dick told BuzzFeed.
The company later informed about their consideration to take legal action, after Dick started up a Change.org petition – which received thousands of signatures from people in support.
According to court documents, police reports and interviews, more than 180 have made the allegations against the spa company
In a more recent encounter, one woman said she had been visiting a Massage Envy in Washington, DC, in a reward to herself for beginning a new job.
During the September visit, Tara Woodley had her eyes closed when she said she felt her therapist’s tongue on her vagina.
Horrified, Woodley jumped up and covered herself, and ‘the therapist grabbed her hand and begged for forgiveness.’
She filed a lawsuit the same month.
Meanwhile, at least two other women reported sexual assault against the same therapist to managers at Massage Envy.
During training session, employees under the company are required to watch a ‘Behind Closed Doors’ program about code of conduct.
The training session says ‘managers and franchisees must understand how to handle complaints of inappropriate conduct.
General counsel of Massage Envy Franchising, Melanie Hansen, provides employees with a Code of Conduct training session
Hansen said ‘as a franchiser of a service brand, we are not experts in investigating criminal acts’
She added that the company advises spas ‘to secure expert help as needed to investigate incidents’
‘In the case a claim is brought against an employee, the goal is to keep the guest ‘in a safe and secure environment in order to retain them as a valued client and avoid negative attention,’ the training session says, according to BuzzFeed.
Managers are told to examine the ‘demeanor or any other behavior that may go towards credibility’ of the customer.
‘If, by whatever means, a therapist is found to have violated the zero-tolerance policy, that person must be fired. If on the other hand the facts are ‘inconclusive,’ the manager is simply instructed to consider steps the spa ‘might take to ensure incidents of this nature do not happen again,’ the report said.
Melanie Hansen, general counsel of Massage Envy Franchising, provided a response to the training video in a statement to BuzzFeed.
‘As a franchiser of a service brand, we are not experts in investigating criminal acts’ so the company advises spas ‘to secure expert help as needed to investigate incidents’,’ Hansen said.
‘That advice does not appear in the recent ‘Behind Closed Doors’ training videos.’
In the official statement, Massage Envy said: ‘We hold franchise owners accountable to our policies and, when we say nothing is more important to us than treating clients with respect and giving them a safe, professional experience, we mean it.’