2 sexual misconduct allegations made against massage therapist at Warren 4-star hotel - Cleveland 19 News

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WARREN, Ohio (WOIO) - A four-star hotel and resort in Warren is under fire after one of their massage therapists was accused of touching clients inappropriately.

19 News is investigating two cases, where women have filed sexual misconduct complaints against one of their massage therapists. Investigator Kelly Kennedy spoke with one of the alleged victims who explains how she hit several roadblocks in her quest for justice.

The alleged sexual assaults happened at the Grand Resort Hotel and Spa in Warren, Ohio.

“It’s almost like your body just shuts down and you’re, I mean, I was just tortured with him touching me then until the massage was over,” said alleged victim Leanna Rocheleau. “Then once the massage was over, he grabs my arm and he leans in and he says, ‘I’m sorry, if I made you If I did anything that made you feel uncomfortable.’”

37-year-old Leanna Rocheleau used to enjoy getting massages, but the Licking County mother says she hasn’t had one since August 17, 2021. She said she still has PTSD.

“I do not feel comfortable with strangers in that position anymore,” Rocheleau admitted.

Rocheleau and her wife Danielle Berger went to the Grand Resort for a weekend getaway in the summer of 2021 but things took a turn when they went for a couple’s massage at the spa.

“When he started with my arms, he had stretched them above my head and then sort of across my body causing the sheet to come down in my breast to be exposed and I sort of questioned myself, oh, maybe the sheet was a little too low,” Rocheleau recalled. “I adjusted myself again and then he sort of did the same thing to the other arm and then the same thing happened to my other breast and at that point, I was sick to my stomach I was starting to panic.”

Rocheleau said after she was exposed, she was on high alert.

“Everything that he was doing was just wildly uncomfortable from how high he put the drape,” she said. “He spent an uncomfortable amount of time on my pelvic area, and I was sick to my stomach, my heart was pounding, I was starting to sweat, I was I felt like I was gonna pass out and he ended up touching my vagina and at that point, I yelled out, whoa, that’s too high.”

The women immediately reported what happened to the front desk and were told they’d have to wait until the next day to speak to a manager.

“The manager ended up refunding us half a half of our stay and, and never acknowledging any of it,” Rocheleau said. “It was it was very much like, I’m sorry, you had a bad experience. We left and went home, and it wasn’t until I got home that I was like, Why didn’t we call the police?”

At that point, Rocheleau called the Howland Township Police Department to report the alleged assault.

“They were wildly unhelpful, and basically told me, I had to drive back down there and file it in person, which now I found out is false, you can file it over the phone and they kept giving me number two victim advocates, who would give me numbers to victim advocates in Columbus who would it was just a giant run around and I couldn’t get any, anybody from that county or that police department to listen to me or even pretend to care,” Rocheleau said. “So, it took the better part of a year to find somebody that would actually take my statement from that police department.”

19 News spent the last two days emailing and calling the detective assigned to her case, but he hasn’t called me back. We did speak with someone from Howland Township police over the phone and they said that the detective is the only detective they have in their department, and he is overwhelmed. She said the sexual assault was reported in August of 2023 and it was still marked as under investigation.

According to records from the Ohio Medical Board; Daniel Sharfal was accused of exposing the breasts of two patients during a massage and touching the vaginal area of one patient.

The Ohio Medical Board opened a sexual misconduct investigation into Sharfal in 2022.

In December of 2023, the board recommended that Sharfal’s license be suspended for six months and that he be put on probation for a year. He’d also have to pay a six thousand dollar fine.

“They made it seem like it was going to be fairly quickly, maybe like a month or two,” said Rocheleau. “It took an entire year for them to write the recommendation report.”

She said while she was waiting for the report the statute of limitations for her to take civil action against Sharfal and the hotel expired.

“Both of those ran out while we were waiting on our only proof,” she explained.

Rocheleau said Sharfal is still employed at the Grand Resort. 19 Investigator Kelly Kennedy went to the resort to speak with staff. She was told no one could comment and the person working at the front desk said she had no idea if Sharfal still worked there.

Shortly after our crew left the Grand Resort sent 19 News the following statement:

“On Friday of last week, The Grand Resort was made aware that a former client of the Spa at The Grand Resort made a social media posting suggesting that The Grand Resort did not take accusations made against one of our massage therapists seriously. The Grand Resort takes every concern of a guest or client seriously and each day works to provide world-class services.

This former client participated in a “Couples Massage” in August 2021. After the massage, one of the two participants complained to our management about an uncomfortable experience that occurred with her massage therapist. At that time, The Grand Resort did an investigation but was unable to determine if the therapist did either intentionally or unintentionally anything wrong or that was in any way inappropriate. This massage therapist has performed over 1800 massages at The Grand Resort and this is the only complaint of this type that has ever been made against the therapist directly to us. The client requested that we immediately fire the therapist but based upon a possible single incident, it was not appropriate that we do so. Instead, we provided a sincere apology to the client for her experience and eliminated all spa charges on both of their accounts.

The client was also advised that if she was not happy with our decision that she could take the matter directly to the Ohio State Medical Board for their review. Apparently, she followed through with this suggestion and all information that we had was shared with the Board. Two years later no decision has been handed down but the therapist advised us that he was recently granted a new license to practice. If other complaints have been filed directly to the Board, we would have no knowledge of them since the Board keeps that information confidential.

This complaint has been ongoing for over two years with no final determination being made from the State Medical Board to date. The State Medical Board has all of the facts and The Grand Resort believes that the State Board is in the best position to determine if any further action needs to be taken.”

Rocheleau posted a video to TikTok five days ago about the alleged assault that has more than three and a half million views.

“I posted the video as a last-ditch effort to for somebody to hear me because I feel I felt like nothing was going anywhere,” Rocheleau explained. “Nobody was listening to me, and I was sick of waiting around for nothing to happen to him. He’s still employed there. He still works there and nothing happened to him.”

19 News tried to reach Sharfal’s attorney but he hasn’t called us back.

In his objection to the medical board’s findings, he did say that Sharfal has been licensed since 1996 and has never had allegations of improper touching or draping before. He also said any discipline from the board is unwarranted.

The licensing hearing for Sharfal is scheduled for tomorrow at 10 A.M.

Stay with 19 News for updates on air and online.

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