Former Boulder massage therapist sentenced to six years in prison in sexual assault case - Boulder Daily Camera

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Matthew Mandel (Boulder County Sheriff’s Office)

A former massage therapist accused of sexually assaulting and groping multiple clients was sentenced Thursday to six years in prison.

Matthew Neil Mandel, 42, pleaded guilty in February to one count of attempted first-degree assault and attempted unlawful sexual contact.

The attempted assault count to which he pleaded guilty names one victim, while the attempted sexual contact charge names four women.

As part of the plea agreement, attorneys agreed Mandel would be sentenced to six years in the Colorado Department of Corrections.

On Thursday, Boulder District Judge Norma Sierra issued the stipulated sentence, issuing six year sentences to the Colorado Department of Corrections on both counts that Mandel will serve concurrently.

Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Sisk and Senior Deputy District Attorney Sara Carty with the 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office Special Victims Unit served as special prosecutors on the case.

“No one who goes to a massage therapist should ever have to fear or endure a sexual assault,” said 17th Judicial District Attorney Brian Mason in a statement. “The defendant’s conduct here was absolutely outrageous. I applaud the victims for their courage in coming forward and am grateful to my team for the just prosecution of this case.”

According to an arrest affidavit, police began the investigation when a woman told Boulder police she went to Massage Specialists in Boulder in April 2019 and was given an appointment with Mandel.

According to an affidavit, the woman said Mandel began to move her underwear and grope her. He then made her flip over and groped her again.

The woman said she did not discuss him touching her because she was “frightened,” but said she was crying for most of the time.

The woman did not initially report the case to law enforcement, but eventually she learned Mandel had other complaints filed against him for similar behavior and she went to police.

After the case was reported, detectives found another case in which another woman made similar allegations about Mandel for an incident while he was working at Colorado Athletic Club in Boulder.

In that case, a woman said Mandel also moved her underwear and groped her in September 2019, but also performed oral sex on her even after she told him to stop.

He was suspended the day the incident was reported to Colorado Athletic Club, and resigned the next day.

According to prosecutors, two other women then came forward following publication of Mandel’s arrest and accused him of sexual misconduct in 2019.

According to the affidavit, Mandel also was accused in a July 2019 incident that was reported to the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies. In that incident, the woman made accusations of “inappropriate sexual behavior by Mandel in the treatment room during and after massages” at Bodywork for Liberation, which was in Louisville at the time. That woman did not choose to pursue a criminal case.

Mandel’s massage therapy license was revoked on Jan. 27, 2020, by the state after he declined to respond to any of the allegations and the state “found that the public health, safety or welfare imperatively required emergency action and/or respondent deliberately and willfully violated the Colorado Massage Therapy Practice Act,” according to the affidavit.