16 more women have come forward with allegations of sexual assault at Massage Envy...

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Women are coming forward with sexual assault allegations against listened massage therapists at Massage Envy locations.
Nick Webb/Flickr

• Two new lawsuits were filed in California and Florida by women who say that Massage Envy therapists sexually violated them.
• The lawsuits come after a 2017 BuzzFeed News investigative report where hundreds of women said they were assaulted at Massage Envy locations nationwide.
• Massage Envy told INSIDER it has updated its Commitment to Safety plan.
• The company also told BuzzFeed News that the California and Florida lawsuits mostly refer to incidents prior to the November 2017 investigation.

Editor's Note: This post contains graphic accounts of sexual assault.

Two new lawsuits were filed in California and Florida on Monday by 16 women who say that Massage Envy therapists sexually violated them during massage sessions, as reported by BuzzFeed News.

These women came forward after a 2017 BuzzFeed News investigative report where over 180 women reported sexual assaults at Massage Envy locations nationwide.

In the initial 2017 report, hundreds of women said they were assaulted by Massage Envy staff


The cases against Massage Envy came to light in a 2017 BuzzFeed News investigative report where 180 women reported assaults at the massage chain's nationwide locations.

In one case, a massage therapist named James Deiter went on to be convicted of sexually assaulting nine Massage Envy clients between 2014 and 2015, according to BuzzFeed News.

In other cases, women alleged digital and oral penetration, groping of genitals and breasts, and at least one case of a massage therapist ejaculating onto a client.

According to one of the newest cases, both a mother and a daughter who had purchased a special Mother's Day package allege that they were assaulted in separate rooms at the same Massage Envy location, BuzzFeed News reported.

The lawsuits take issue with Massage Envy's former training documentation that reportedly seemed focused on deescalating these situations rather than addressing them with law enforcement


In November 2017, a BuzzFeed News review of training documentation for Massage Envy franchisees found that while the chain discussed its "zero tolerance policy" regarding sexual assault, its primary concern appeared to be de-escalating the situation and discouraging clients from lodging official complaints.

The California and Florida lawsuits both make mention of these policies. After an incident at a Northern California Massage Envy location in November 2017, when a client claimed sexual assault at that location, the location's owner reportedly said that since the client's story "did not match up" with the massage therapist's, the owner would not fire the therapist in question, according to BuzzFeed News.

Attorneys Jennifer Lipinski and Brian Kent also wrote in the newest Florida lawsuit, obtained by the Daily Business Review, "Massage Envy's policy of telling staff to 'not go to police' was singularly designed to continue its profit and protect the brand at the expense of the safety of unsuspecting customers."

In December 2017, after the BuzzFeed News report, Massage Envy released its "Commitment to Safety," which laid out a reporting requirement that all franchisees should provide clients with local law enforcement contact information if any allegations of sexual assault were made and also immediately provide a private room in their facilities from which the clients could make the appropriate calls.

Massage Envy told BuzzFeed News the California and Florida lawsuits mostly refer to incidents prior to the November 2017 investigation.

Currently, there is no legal requirement in most states for licensed massage facilities to report allegations of sexual assault to local law enforcement


The bills to compel such national requirement have not made it past the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations.
Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash
As BuzzFeed News found in its initial investigation, most states did not require massage facilities to report sexual assault on their premises to local law enforcement as of November 2017.
On the federal level, Representative Patrick Meehan (R-PA) introduced two separate bills to compel such a requirement nationwide: the Duty to Report Sexual Assault Acts of 2016 and 2017.

Both bills were referred to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations — and both went no further.

Meehan announced that he wouldn't be seeking re-election in 2018, but resigned amid his own sexual harassment scandal in April 2018.

Thus far, no one else seems to have picked up the mantle to pass legislation aimed at requiring such reporting on a national level.

One survivor of sexual assault at Massage Envy is speaking out in defense of the company's commitment to have more appropriate handling of both sexual assault training and allegations


Dr. Danielle Dick is one of the women who came forward and shared her story with BuzzFeed News during its initial investigation in 2017. She is a survivor of sexual assault at a Massage Envy location— after an 11-month court battle, the masseuse who assaulted her was convicted and is in jail serving a five-year sentence for sexual battery and forcible object, sexual penetration, according to WTKR.

Now she is part of Massage Envy's new Safety Advisory Council, which the company formed in response to the allegations against it.

When INSIDER reached out to Massage Envy for a comment, the company referred to this post from Dr. Dick about all the ways Massage Envy is working to confront this issue head-on — and how she, herself, feels that they are listening to and taking her advice as a survivor regarding the way forward.

The company also issued the following update to its Commitment to Safety plan, which is not yet available on their website. You can read it in its entirety below.


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