On July 21, 2023, Cape Coral massage therapist Craig Simone was criminally charged with battery on a female client in Lee County, Florida, following a report of sexual assault made to the Cape Coral Police Department five months earlier. Craig Simone has been a licensed massage therapist in Florida since August 1992.
According to the charges filed and the police report, on February 25, 2023, Craig Simone was scheduled to perform a 60-minute massage on a 30-year-old female at Esterra Spa & Salon in Cape Coral, on Silver King Boulevard. The victim alleges that during her massage, Simone touched her genital area without consent and grazed the side of her breast. The victim reported the incident to the local police that same day. She told the officer that Simone called her after the massage and left a voicemail apologizing because he heard she was unhappy with the massage. The investigation is still pending.
When patients book a massage, it is to decompress and relax. The massage therapist-patient relationship is founded on mutual trust. Clients trust that the massage therapists employed at a spa are carefully vetted and safe. Any violation of that trust requires swift action, as it is both unacceptable and unlawful for a massage therapist to touch a client in a sexual manner.
Horowitz Law has filed numerous sexual assault lawsuits against massage therapists on behalf of clients who were sexually assaulted during massages at day spas and resorts. If you have been a victim of sexual assault or sexual battery during a massage, or if you know someone who has, please contact our law firm at 888-283-9922 or send an e-mail to sexual abuse lawyer Adam Horowitz at [email protected] for a free consultation.