Deshaun Watson case: Dangerous demand for sex from massage therapists - USA TODAY

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Deshaun Watson's lack of accountability illuminates toxic culture enabled by the Browns

Nancy Armour reacts to the disgusting behavior and rhetoric from Deshaun Watson and Browns ownership after the suspension settlement.

USA TODAY


Before a crowd of reporters, Dee Haslam tried to recast the narrative around quarterback Deshaun Watson’s alleged sexual misconduct. The Cleveland Browns’ co-owner said she hoped to shift the conversation away from her team’s new star to greater problems in America.

“I think there’s just a huge opportunity to talk about the major issues in our country in this area, such as sex trafficking, massage parlor use,” she said Thursday, hours after a deal was announced between Watson and the NFL settling a dispute over discipline for his conduct during massage therapy sessions.

“This isn’t about Deshaun,” Haslam continued.

Yet, those issues are very much about Watson, and origins of the behavior the NFL’s disciplinary officer found he’d engaged in: Massage that progressed to sexual assault.

Massage in the U.S. can be a dangerous business, thanks in large part to a perception that it’s simply foreplay for sex.

The connection between massage and commercial sex is deeply embedded in American culture. Academics have suggested the modern concept grew out of the Vietnam War, when G.I.s on R&R – rest and recuperation leave – traveled to Thailand and frequented massage parlors that provided sexual services.

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Research from the 1970s indicated a rise in the number of massage parlors across the U.S. “Happy endings,” usually slang for a hand job at the end of a massage, seems to have entered the lexicon in the early 2000s.

But the tendency to view massage therapists as sex objects has deeper roots.

“We’re fighting thousands of years of behavior in society,” said Les Sweeney, president and CEO of Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals. “Part of the solution we believe is educating people to understand the difference. That doesn’t mean we or anybody is going to eradicate all the bad guys… but the more light we shine on this the easier it is for therapists to have some standing.”

Sweeney and the association run Respect Massage, a program seeking to empower massage therapists to identify, deter and escape clients looking for sex. The association has been closely following the news of Watson’s alleged misconduct.

The women who sued Watson say he turned massages sexual without their consent, sometimes touching them with his penis or begging for them to touch him. At least three of them worked for Dionne Louis, who owns A New U Salon Spa, located in a strip mall outside Houston. All but one of the 24 cases brought against Watson have been settled out of court with confidential agreements.

The massage picture is further complicated by the proliferation of commercial sex businesses masquerading as legitimate massage establishments. They inhabit strip malls and shopping centers, operating next to grocery stores and daycares, liquor stores and restaurants. Their windows often are blacked out, neon signs are common, the clientele is largely male and operating hours tend to extend well into the night.

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The Network, an anti-trafficking organization, estimates there are 11,000 such locations in this country, based on data from sex buyer review sites. And the spas bring in huge profits. The illicit massage industry is a multi-billion-dollar business, generating an estimated $4 billion annually and as much as $1 million per storefront.

The most prolific sex spas are Asian coded, with spa names including words Americans might associate with Asian culture, such as jade, oriental or jasmine – signaling to their male customers that a “happy ending” may be available, for a price.

Behind the scenes, however, this often plays out as something far different than consensual sex work.

As Haslam suggested, sex trafficking is prevalent within illicit massage businesses, which rely on a steady stream of workers, some of them forced, coerced or defrauded into sex work. Many are Asian immigrants who owe tens of thousands of dollars to their traffickers or smugglers.

Those who take jobs willingly still may find they lack the autonomy to determine what services they provide, how often or to which customers.

A victim in a landmark 2019 sex trafficking case out of Minnesota testified in court that she’d done some sex work to boost her income at home in Thailand before traveling to the U.S. through a broker.

The broker promised her a job, which she envisioned would be similar to the work she’d done previously. Instead, the trafficking organization the broker belonged to charged her $60,000 – money she had to repay. On her first day they sent 10 men to have sex with her.

The prevalence of such businesses has given rise to customers who expect massages to end in sex. Watson has said repeatedly, in some cases under oath, that the sexual encounters with masseuses were consensual.

Two Texas grand juries declined to indict Watson. His attorney, Rusty Hardin, has repeatedly questioned the credibility of the women who are suing Watson, in one case saying one woman has a vendetta against him, and has "been acting crazy about Deshaun since November of 2020."

On Thursday, Watson apologized for the “pain this situation has caused.”

“I take accountability for the decisions I made,” he said.

A $5 million fine from Watson and $1 million donation from Haslam and her husband, Jimmy Haslam – who shares ownership in the team – will go toward nonprofits that work to prevent sexual violence.

Comments by Watson’s attorneys, however, have drawn major concerns from massage professionals and sexual abuse survivors.

“I don’t know how many men are out there now that have had a massage that perhaps occasionally there was a happy ending,” Hardin said on a Houston radio show in June. “If that has happened, it’s not a crime, OK, unless you are paying somebody extra or so to give you some kind of sexual activity.”

Sweeney issued a statement at the time, saying such comments “display a carelessness toward the safety of massage therapists and the significance of sexual misconduct.” Part of what alarms advocates and massage professionals is that efforts to brush off expectations of “happy endings” could embolden more customers to demand it.

When that doesn’t happen, things can go way wrong.

In recent years, anti-trafficking advocates have noticed an alarming rise in reports of customer violence, and a concerning new trend in traffickers’ tactics: Using customer violence to control victims while keeping their own hands clean.

In interviews with USA TODAY, several shared accounts of violent encounters.

Kathy Lu, an attorney for Sanctuary for Families, said one of her masseuse clients tried to rebuff a spa owner’s pressure to provide sexual services. She reported that she was gang raped by two customers who she was convinced were sent by the owner to break her resolve.

“Particularly in this type of trafficking, there’s a more subtle reliance on cultural norms and customer violence to keep these people in line and it becomes harder in (our) clients’ minds to point all of the blame on the people operating whatever business,” Lu said.

“They pin more of the blame on the customers who really brutalized them,” she added, an obstacle for law enforcement and prosecutors trying to combat trafficking.

Trafficking victims aren’t the only ones who suffer when customers think it’s appropriate to demand sex during massages.

Panida Rzonca, who works with the Thai Community Center – which also has assisted victims of trafficking in massage – said she’s seen the impact on licensed massage practitioners who have no intention of offering sex.

“If they don’t provide those sexual services, they’re given less clients so it effects their income,” she said. “They’re getting squeezed or harassed out of the job because they aren’t making customers happy.”

Massage therapists who refuse to provide such services may also be attacked by customers who have learned to expect it.

Americans watched a worst-case scenario play out last year as a man opened fire in Atlanta-area spas killing eight people, six of them massage workers. The suspect told law enforcement officials he had frequented two of the spas, describing them as temptations for his “sex addiction” that he needed to “eliminate.”

A broader review by USA TODAY across Georgia revealed additional reports of violence at illicit spas. In 2016, a man broke into King’s Spa in Columbia County, knocked the manager unconscious, stole the spa’s money and raped one of the female employees. Three years later, in Jasper, Georgia, a man posing as a police officer had handcuffed one of the women working at Massage Angels and sexually assaulted her.

Such cases routinely pop up across the country.

A former Seattle lawyer and city prosecutor was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2014 for raping five massage workers over two years. According to a Seattle Post-Intelligencer report the lawyer would request a sexual service and, when the masseuse said no, he’d attack her, sometimes at knifepoint.

In Minnesota in 2018, a spa owner called 911 saying a drunk customer refused to leave and “wanted more than a massage.” The customer, a truck driver, was in a massage room with an employee who ran out screaming “you can’t do this to me,” according to a police report.

The employee told the owner “if you didn’t come in, he’d probably try to (expletive) me.” The customer was arrested for criminal sexual conduct.

Five out of six massage therapists are female, Sweeney said. Women are overwhelmingly the victims.

“If you were in a room with 20 massage therapists, I think all of them would say, yeah, sometime in my career I’ve experienced this,” Sweeney said. “That’s part of the reason why we’re working to try to educate people.”

If you've seen what could be human trafficking or if you need help, the National Human Trafficking Hotline 1-888-373-7888 is confidential, toll-free and available 24/7 in more than 200 languages. Text: “BeFree” (233733). Chat: humantraffickinghotline.org.

Cara Kelly is a reporter on the USA TODAY investigations team, focusing primarily on pop culture, consumer news and sexual violence. Contact her at carakelly@usatoday.com, @carareports or CaraKelly on WhatsApp.