On January 30, 2024, the Florida Department of Health (DOH) filed an Emergency Order restricting Carlos Hill’s massage therapy license. This restriction was in response to a report of sexual misconduct during a massage he performed while working at Massage Envy in Panama City, Florida. The Order prohibits Carlos Hill from practicing massage therapy on female clients in Florida. Carlos Hill has been a licensed massage therapist in Florida since April of 2023 and in Tennessee since 2010.
According to the order, on September 26, 2023, massage therapist Carlos Hill worked at the Massage Envy at Pier Park in Panama City, where he performed a 60-minute massage on a female client. During the massage, Mr. Hill allegedly removed the sheet draping from the client’s hip area, exposing her genitals after she fell asleep face up on the massage table. Hill then placed his hand between the client’s legs and digitally penetrated her vagina. The female victim awoke immediately when she felt his hands there and froze. Mr. Hill then allegedly grabbed the client’s hand and placed it on his erect penis. Hill didn’t stop there. He then attempted to digitally penetrate the client’s anus, but she screamed, and Hill ceased his actions.
Carlos Hill Allegedly Violated the Massage Therapist-Patient Relationship
When clients schedule a massage, it is to decompress from the stresses of life. They trust that the massage therapists employed at the spa are carefully vetted and safe to engage with the public. It is unacceptable, immoral, and unlawful for any employee to touch a client sexually. Clients of massage therapists are in an isolated setting, leaving them vulnerable and subject to abuse by their massage therapists.
Due to the potential for inherent abuse, under those circumstances, massage therapists must possess good judgment and moral character to practice massage therapy safely. Mr. Carlos Hill willfully abused his position as a massage therapist to sexually violate a woman who trusted him to act professionally and within the boundaries of generally accepted massage therapy and treatment. Mr. Hill’s violation of the massage therapist-patient relationship indicates that he lacks the good moral character and judgment necessary to practice massage therapy on female clients safely.
Horowitz Law has filed numerous sexual assault lawsuits against massage therapists for clients who were inappropriately touched at Massage Envy and various massage salons and spas. If you have been a victim of sexual assault or sexual battery during a massage, or if you know someone who has, contact our law firm at 888-283-9922 or send an email to sexual abuse lawyer Adam Horowitz for massage clients at [email protected] for a free consultation.