Massage therapist charged with sexually assaulting clients - Kitsap Sun

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PORT ORCHARD — A massage therapist was arrested Wednesday on allegations that he sexually assaulted women during massages while he was employed at clinics in Bremerton, Port Orchard and Tacoma over an almost decade-long career.

Kitsap County prosecutors on Thursday charged Joshua Nathaniel Jenkins, 38, with one count of second-degree rape and three counts of indecent liberties. He remains in the Kitsap County Jail on $25,000 bail.

Bremerton detectives said in court documents that Jenkins admitted to engaging in sexual activity with 20 to 22 women during appointments over his career, but he claimed they were consensual encounters. Detectives said he also acknowledged he would "test the waters" with clients with suggestive touching to determine if it was "something that was wanted."

But women interviewed by detectives said his advances were unwelcome and violating, including an allegation of rape.

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The Kitsap County Courthouse

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Bremerton's investigation began when a woman who'd received a massage from Jenkins reported to a friend that she'd been inappropriately touched by him throughout her time with him at an East Bremerton massage clinic. She told police that while she felt frozen and in a kind of shock at the time, she wanted to come forward "because she was worried this may not be the first time Jenkins has done this to someone, and she didn't want anyone else to be hurt by him," investigators wrote.

Detectives found Port Orchard police had conducted its own investigation in March 2016, in which a woman reported Jenkins, working at a massage clinic there, had inappropriately touched her multiple times during a massage in a similar fashion. County prosecutors declined to file charges at the time. But the owner of the clinic told Bremerton police that he'd fired Jenkins because of "inappropriate interactions with some of their clients," detectives wrote.

That led police to another woman who reported that sometime in 2015 or 2016, she fell asleep on the massage table at the Port Orchard clinic and she awoke to find him raping her, detectives said. She told police she did not come forward because she felt guilt and was embarrassed about it because she hadn't responded forcefully against earlier inappropriate touching by him.

Another woman, this time a fellow massage therapist, also told Bremerton detectives that between 2011 and 2016, she'd received massages from him that included inappropriate touching.

Police also found Tacoma police had investigated Jenkins in July 2017 for inappropriately touching a woman at a massage clinic there, but Pierce County prosecutors declined to file charges.

Bremerton police investigators said in a news release that their investigation continues and they're still seeking others who may have had similar encounters with Jenkins.

Josh Farley is a reporter covering the military for the Kitsap Sun. He can be reached at 360-792-9227, josh.farley@kitsapsun.com or on Twitter at @joshfarley.

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