SA woman: Texas law must change after massage therapist not investigated for sex assault -...

[massage]

SAN ANTONIO - A San Antonio woman said sexual assault laws in Texas must change after a massage therapist she accused of inappropriately touching her late last year was instead investigated for misdemeanor assault.

"I was paralyzed. Physically, I could have gotten up. I don't know why I didn't. My body froze," said the woman, who we are calling "Jane" to protect her identity.

Jane recalled in great detail last month what she said happened to her during a 90-minute therapeutic massage in early December at a Spa d'Sante location in the 16600 block of San Pedro Avenue.

"(He) started to hold me down forcefully, and he rubbed from my vagina all the way up my chest, groping my breasts over and over and over again," Jane said.

She said the massage therapist massaged her buttocks under the sheets, removed a sheet exposing her entire body and moved her hands away when she moved them up to cover her breasts.

"The last 20 minutes, when it was at its worst, he kept counting down. 'You have 20 minutes left. You have 15 minutes left.' It was torture," said Jane, who added that she stayed in the room crying when the massage was finished and contacted her neighbor, an off-duty police officer.

Jane said she was only able to emerge from the room after the arrival of her neighbor, her husband and an on-duty San Antonio Police Department officer called to the scene.

SAPD confirms Jane also provided a follow-up interview for the incident.

However, because Jane's body was not penetrated during the alleged assault, the department's Special Victims Unit could not handle the case and it was instead investigated as a misdemeanor assault by contact.

"Having this happen is life-changing enough. There's a justice system and I have always had confidence in the justice system. What this guy did to me doesn't matter. The law says it doesn't matter, and that it's not sexual because he didn't penetrate me," Jane said.

"These cases are very difficult because you basically have a victim and you have the alleged suspect," SAPD spokeswoman Sgt. Michelle Ramos said. "We have to make sure the allegation meets the elements of the offense,"

In Texas, those elements include penetration of the anus or sexual organ by the actor, without that person's consent or the penetration of the mouth of another person by the sexual organ of the actor, without that person's consent, according to the Texas Penal Code.

City records show that Jane filed an assault complaint against the masseur on Dec. 15. In early February, Jane received a letter from a deputy city attorney informing her that her case was rejected by the city prosecutor's office.

Savita Rai, an assistant city attorney, said last month that the case was recently reviewed and then handed over to the district attorney's office for review.

Rai said she could not comment on why the city attorney's office took a second look at the case.

Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation records confirm that a complaint case against the massage therapist was opened Jan. 2.

The masseur, who we are not naming because he has not been criminally charged, provided a statement via Facebook messenger:

"TDLR is currently reviewing the case and I am awaiting a follow up from them. My understanding of my termination is based on the acting manager's investigation results that I committed a violation according to their interpretation of the facts provided. Otherwise my termination would be purely out of their need to protect their business from potential further risk."
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"Don't keep quiet. If something feels off, let somebody know," said Daniel Jaramillo, director of operations for Rapha Wellness, the parent company of San Antonio's four Spa d'Sante locations.

Jaramillo, who pointed out that Sap d'Sante provides more than 50,000 massage services a year, confirmed that the massage therapist involved in Jane's incident and a therapist who faced similar accusations at its Bulverde Road location in June 2016 were both terminated.

Both therapists remain licensed, according to TDLR records.

"We felt at the very least, they were not careful. They were sloppy," Jaramillo said.

When asked to elaborate, Jaramillo referred to both therapists as "careless," and said that each employee may not have communicated properly about what techniques they would be using during the sessions in question.

Jaramillo said clients can leave their clothes on and request that the door be left open during massages, and that when a complaint is filed, a therapist is taken off of the schedule until the investigation is finished.

At the Bulverde Road location, a woman who claimed she was sexually assaulted filed the complaint from home.

The Bexar County Sheriff's Office has refused to release preliminary information related to the case and instead has asked the state Attorney General's Office to rule on what information should be made public since the case remains open.

Jane said she is currently in counseling to help deal with what happened to her and said she has been unable to explain to her children what happened.

"(I) can't look at my children the same. I don't want to tell them there are bad people and this happened to me," she said.

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