Virginia Massage Envy Client Writes About Sexual Assault

RICHMOND, VA — A Richmond, Virginia woman has launched a petition criticizing Massage Envy's response to nearly 200 sexual assault reports nationwide. The company needs to support individuals sexually assaulted at their stores, says Danielle Dick, who wrote an account of her assault, in which her assailant was ultimately convicted. But just as humiliating as the trial, she says, was the way Massage Envy handled her report.

Dick says that the local manager refused to call police, and said the firm would handle the assault report internally. Her outrage at the directions by Massage Envy at the corporate level to not call police in many situations has been echoed nationally. More than 180 women have accused massage therapists from the popular chain, and the company has repeatedly ignored the allegations, BuzzFeed News reported Sunday night. BuzzFeed cited court records, police reports and other complaints from women who reported being groped and penetrated by massage therapists at Massage Envy locations across the country.

In an email to BuzzFeed, a lawyer for 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."

Dick, a college professor and mother of a young son, wrote on the Medium website last month that her stop at a Richmond area Massage Envy went horribly wrong. "...In the end I found myself with a masseuse’s hand around my throat, and then face down with his hand covering my mouth while he violated me."

During the trial of her assailant, his lawyer asked Dick what she was wearing and whether she might have done something to give the masseuse the wrong impression. While he was convicted of a felony sexual assault and admitted to everything that happened, he maintained through the end that he did it “for my pleasure,” she wrote.

Her online petition has received nearly 55,000 signatures so far.

On the petition site Dick says, "They refused to allow me to get on the phone with the supervisor. That person did call the next day – to tell me that they understood that I was 'unhappy with my massage experience', so they would not charge me for the massage."

In the following year, as Dick's attacker was in court, she said she never heard from anyone at Massage Envy, either from the local franchise or the national corporation. No apology was issued, she wrote, and she continued to receive mailings for the local Massage Envy where she was assaulted.

In another regional case, a woman filed a $25 million lawsuit against Massage Envy and the masseur she says sexually assaulted her during a massage at the Tenleytown parlor in the Washington, D.C., area.

Habtamu Gebreslassie, 24, of Silver Spring, Md. is charged with first-degree sexual abuse in both cases for allegedly performed oral sex on the clients against their will. He was later fired and is scheduled to go to trial in January.

The woman who filed the lawsuit is going to come forward publicly Monday and release a statement about the lawsuit. Patch will be there to cover the event.

A D.C. Superior Court Judge denied bond last month for Gebreslassie, saying “there are no conditions that would prevent future dangerousness,” WTOP reports.

One of Gebreslassie's alleged victims filed a $25 million lawsuit against Massage Envy and Gebreslassie. The married woman in her 20s said Gebreselassie assaulted her in the final 15 minutes of her 90-minute massage on Sept. 17. at the Tenleytown business at 4926 Wisconsin Ave. NW.

Personal injury attorney Kim Brooks Rodney said Massage Envy received prior complaints of a similar nature about Gebreselassie before the woman was a patron at the spa.

Massage Envy sent the following statement to The Washington Post about the lawsuit:

"Massage Envy requires franchisees to complete extensive background screenings and reference checks and strictly enforce our Code of Conduct and Zero Tolerance Policy to ensure guests have a safe and professional experience when they visit a franchised location," the statement said.
Gebreslassie is no longer employed by the company. According to court documents, he denied the accusations.

The victim filed the lawsuit Sept. 26 to "obtain compensation for the damages she has suffered and will continue to suffer, and, as importantly, to make sure that no other patron of a Massage Envy establishment ever experiences a sexual assault," the statement said.

Watch: Therapists At Massage Chain Accused Of Sexual Assault By Over 180 Women

Photo Credit: Amy Sussman/Invision for Massage Envy/AP Images