On January 6, 2025, massage therapist Virgil Browne was criminally charged with battery in connection with an alleged sexual assault of a female client during a massage appointment in the spa of the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach on August 23, 2024. According to a probable cause affidavit, the 19-year old alleged victim and her mother arrived at the Breakers Hotel for a scheduled eighty minute massage appointment. During the massage, the alleged victim started face down on the massage table, and did not wear underwear during the massage. Browne started working on the victim’s back and then proceeded down to the victim’s legs. The victim recalled the sheet being properly draped around her leg. The industry term for this drape around the leg is called “diaper draping.” “Diaper draping” is referred to when the sheet is looped around the inside of the patient’s upper thigh arid pulled away from the medial line of the body. When applied, the patient’s groin region would be protected, and a masseuse could safely massage the leg and glute region. The loop is held in place by the weight of a client’s leg and the sheet is taught enough so that a barrier is established between1 a client’s groin area and the therapist.
As Browne massaged up and down the alleged victim’s inner thigh and groin area, his right hand was on the inner thigh and his left hand was on the outside of her left leg. As Browne moved up her left leg, he went higher and reportedly placed his extended right hand and open palm around the victim’s vagina. The victim stated Browne “didn’t go all the way in there, but he touched me, like, fully.” The victim demonstrated that Browne kept his open palm over her genitalia and moved his fingers in an up and down motion over her vagina. The victim recalled the “diaper draping” loosened up quickly as Browne went underneath the sheet to touch her vagina. She confirmed there was no digital penetration. After the victim’s vagina was touched, she was in shock and recalled saying “you went too high” to Browne. The alleged victim told law enforcement that she asked Browne “do you do that to all your clients?” and told him she planned to report the incident. Browne reportedly replied, “Please don’t, I have four kids, I need this job” and noted that he “got carried away.” The alleged victim ended the massage twenty minutes early and reported the incident to spa employees at the front desk. Browne refused to speak to law enforcement and has pled not guilty to the criminal charges.
On November 2, 2024, Virgil Browne got his license to practice massage therapy suspended by the Florida Department of Health. An Order of Emergency Suspension was issued after a complaint was filed with the Department of Health. Virgil Browne, age 50, has been a licensed massage therapist in Florida since 2023. The emergency suspension prohibits Browne from practicing massage therapy in Florida, effective immediately.
Clients of massage therapists are placed in isolated, vulnerable settings where they can be subject to abuse by their massage therapists. Due to the potential for abuse that is inherent under these circumstances, massage therapists must possess good judgment and good moral character in order to practice massage therapy safely. 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. Virgil Browne is accused of willfully abusing his position as a massage therapist to sexually violate a patient. Browne allegedly abused his power and lacked good moral judgment to practice massage safely.
Horowitz Law has filed numerous sexual misconduct claims against massage therapists on behalf of clients who were inappropriately touched at massage parlors and other 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 e-mail Adam Horowitz at [email protected] for a free consultation.