UPDATE: An Englewood massage therapist accused of inappropriately touching female customers received no complaints until one woman came forward and then was quickly followed by five others, his attorney said.
“These woman who are now complaining have said nothing about this before. None of these women made a complaint or stopped the massage,” attorney Ron Bar-Nadav told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. “Only after the first complaint was filed, did these other woman come forward.”
A grand jury in Hackensack indicted his client, 52-year-old licensed massage therapist Felipe Cruz, on nearly a dozen counts of “unwanted sexual contact” and three counts of sexual assault by digital penetration.
Bar-Nadav said the first complaint came from a woman who bought a Groupon coupon for a massage at the D2 Day Spa in Englewood, where he said Cruz worked as an independent contractor. The others quickly followed, he said.
“In other cases, there have been female message therapists who were merely charged with prostitution for similar conduct in a massage session,” Bar-Nadav said. “However, as a male therapist, he has been charged with far more serious offenses.
“Certainly, it appears to be an unfair and prejudicial enforcement of the law.”
Bar-Nadav said he was misquoted as knowing the six customers who complained. He said he’d merely pointed out that Cruz had several repeat customers — not that these, in fact, were.
Cruz has remained held on $25,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail since Englewood police and members of the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office arrested him on Nov. 22.
MUGSHOT: Courtesy ENGLEWOOD PD
