CONROE, Texas — **WARNING: This story contains details about sexual assault that may be too graphic for some readers.**
A Houston-area Massage Envy has agreed to pay $1 million in a sexual assault settlement.
According to court documents, a masseuse at the Conroe location sexually assaulted two women on two separate occasions.
Following reports of the assaults, the Conroe Police Department arrested the employee and charged him with felony sexual assault. He has since posted bond and is out of jail. The criminal case is ongoing, according to court documents
One of the victims visited the business on FM 3038 on July 3, 2022, for a full body massage, the lawsuit says. Though the victim had service with the masseuse in the past, this time, at the end of the massage, he raped the victim with his fingers and mouth and held her down until he was done. The woman lay there frozen in fear, according to court records. After the alleged assault, the employee reportedly gave the woman two towels to clean up with.
The woman left the Massage Envy and went straight to her doctor, where she called police and filed a report. Court documents say the woman suffered “mental anguish, emotional distress and trauma.” The woman also contracted herpes from the man, the lawsuit says.
A little more than a week later, on July 15, 2022, another woman visited the establishment for a full body massage with the same masseuse. During the massage, he failed to tuck the woman’s drape as he’d done for past massages with the woman, the lawsuit says. While on the table, court documents say the employee lightly touched part of the victim’s breast. At first, she thought it was an accident until he did it twice more, the lawsuit says.
The victim told the masseuse she was getting sore, and he began massaging her legs and told her she was “tense” in the chest area, according to court documents. While rubbing the woman’s legs he touched her genitals and left her exposed, the lawsuit says. The woman told the employee she was uncomfortable, and he moved to her other leg without covering her up, the suit says. She told him again she was uncomfortable, and he covered her and continued the massage over the drape, according to the suit.
The lawsuit says after the massage was over, the woman left the building as fast as she could and called her mother, who told the victim to report it to management.
The lawsuit claims Massage Envy failed to properly vet the employee before hiring him, that he was not properly trained about sexual assault, that they didn’t provide adequate supervision, and that the Conroe location kept the employee on board after the sexual assaults were reported.
“The franchise owner attempted to downplay the allegations, and we did not stand for it,” said trial lawyer Anna Greenberg. “These women, with no knowledge of the other’s allegations, separately reported the assaults by this therapist within just a few weeks of each other. That is no coincidence; that is evidence of a predator at work.”
Lawyers for the victims said the Massage Envy is paying the maximum insurance policy of $1 million dollars to the women. The masseuse is facing charges of felony assault.