On June 25, 2024, massage therapist Jorge Cardenio Destrades Llanes from Massage Envy in Miami Brickell was arrested and charged with sexual battery following a complaint made by a 28-year-old female client. Destrades Llanes, 53, faces charges of second-degree sexual battery without serious injury and is being held on a $7,500 bond. Llanes has been a licensed massage therapist in Florida since March 2024.
According to media reports, Jorge Cardenio Destrades Llanes digitally penetrated a 28-year-old woman while massaging her thigh during a full-body massage at the Massage Envy Miami Brickell location located at 900 South Miami Avenue. The alleged victim reported to the Miami Police Department that after the abuse, Llanes tried to pay her off if she didn’t tell anyone. She denied his cash offer and asked for her phone number to Zelle her the money back. She never received it because the victim gave the wrong number and police found her name stored in his phone. Both parties were interviewed that day, and Llanes admitted to possibly touching the victim’s vagina unintentionally during the massage. Llanes was subsequently arrested shortly after.
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 in a sexual manner. 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 those circumstances, massage therapists must possess good judgment and good moral character to practice massage therapy safely.
Horowitz Law has filed numerous sexual assault lawsuits against massage therapists on behalf of clients who were inappropriately touched at Massage Envy franchises 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 send an e-mail to sexual abuse lawyer Adam Horowitz for massage clients at [email protected] for a free consultation.