Another woman has come forward claiming she was sexually assaulted during an appointment at a Houston-area Massage Envy.
According to court records, it happened in Feb. 2022 at a Massage Envy that has since shuttered on Westheimer Road near the Galleria.
“You don’t know if you’re going to be raped or how far it’s going to go,” said Jane Doe, who filed a lawsuit against the franchise owner, therapist, and Massage Envy on Monday after her alleged assault nearly two years ago.
The emotions are still raw for her. She asked KPRC 2 to conceal her identity and alter her voice.
She had been getting massages every few weeks for 12 years after being diagnosed with lupus.
“This is more for medical purposes,” she said, adding that it helped with pain as well as the functioning of her muscles and joints. “You go there expecting someone to take care of you and help you.”
Her regular female massage therapist was unavailable, so she ended up seeing a male massage therapist in his 20s, she said.
It turned into a traumatic experience that she said took her back to sexual abuse by a family member in her childhood.
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“It was a full-blown assault. I mean, he went in hard and aggressive,” Jane Doe said. “You’re in a private, dark room and you just don’t know what to do.”
According to the lawsuit, she was in shock and frozen in fear, but she resisted and told him to stop.
Court records show the massage therapist got arrested for sexual assault about six months later, after detectives reviewed an internal investigation in which he admitted to the assault but said he felt it was “consensual” based on the woman’s “body language.”
KPRC 2 is not naming the therapist, because after the Harris County District Attorney’s Office presented the case to a grand jury, the defendant was no billed and criminal charges didn’t advance. The case was dismissed.
But this Jane Doe is not alone in sexual assault allegations involving Massage Envy.
In October, two victims reached a settlement in a civil sex assault case against a Massage Envy franchise in Conroe and the masseur, Jose Barajas Franco. Those two victims have criminal cases against Franco pending in Montgomery County.
After that story aired, three more alleged victims came forward, claiming that Franco assaulted them as well. They filed a civil lawsuit and court records show about two weeks after another story aired, Franco was indicted by a Montgomery County grand jury for two additional sexual assault charges.
“Massage Envy isn’t doing something about it,” Jane Doe’s attorney Bradley Ertl said.
While the locations and perpetrators are different for his client and the Conroe cases, Ertl called it a “systemic problem” happening at Massage Envy franchises across the country.
“We filed this lawsuit on behalf of Jane Doe in order to try and change those policies and procedures to make sure that this Jane Doe is the last Jane Doe,” Ertl said. “People go to massage spas to feel safe. They go there to be in a controlled environment. They go there to be respected. And Jane Doe did not feel safe because she wasn’t. She was in an uncontrolled environment and she was not respected.”
The location where Jane Doe said her assault happened has since closed, but Ertl said the franchise owner has several other locations across the Houston area.
When reached by phone on Wednesday morning, the franchise owner told KPRC 2′s Bryce Newberry he was unaware of the lawsuit and he needed to call his attorney, then hung up. He has not responded to a request for comment.
Since KPRC 2 started reporting on sexual assault allegations involving Houston-area Massage Envy franchises in October, the company has not responded to any request for comment. The same remained true on Wednesday after requesting a response to the latest lawsuit.
“It makes me angry,” Jane Doe said. “It’s just wrong.”