OGDEN — State regulators are sounding the alarm about massage therapist Richard Dwaileebe after pulling his license for sexual contact with customers.
Officials are aware of six to eight victims of Dwaileebe and worry there are more, said Mark Steinagel, director of the state Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing, which revoked Dwaileebe’s license Thursday.
“What we are concerned about is, there may be a significant number of victims out there that we don’t know about, and we’d like them to come forward,” Steinagel said.
Dwaileebe, 41, of South Ogden, has been under contract with the New Image Day Spa, of Washington Terrace.
New Image filed a formal complaint about Dwaileebe with DOPL last month. His case is being reviewed for possible criminal charges.
Contact information for Dwaileebe was not available Friday.
DOPL called an emergency hearing Wednesday regarding Dwaileebe where a “specially convened DOPL committee suspended his license,” said spokeswoman Jennifer Bolton.
“The division believed Mr. Dwaileebe’s actions against his clients presented an immediate danger to public health, safety and welfare.”
Dwaileebe voluntarily surrendered his license the next day, she said.
“He also agreed he would never reapply for a massage therapist’s license in Utah.”
He had been licensed in Utah since 1999, according to DOPL documents.
Steinagel said the emergency session was extremely rare, one of only five he has called in his three years as head of DOPL, which regulates 56 professions.
“We felt he was an immediate danger to the public,” he said of Dwaileebe. “We worried he could become predatory.”
In the Stipulation for Surrender of Licensure signed by DOPL officials and Dwaileebe, Dwaileebe admits to vaginal and anal massages of multiple clients from 2009 to April 2012, as well as massaging and touching the breasts of female clients.
In one case, according to the documents, a client woke up to find Dwaileebe forcefully massaging her vagina.
“(She) attempted to sit up and told (Dwaileebe) to stop, but he pushed her down on the table and told her that he knew what her body needed, and to relax and enjoy it,” documents state.
“In our experience, it’s rare for our licensed massage therapists to do what this fellow did,” Steinagel said.
“It’s usually the unlicensed people who give the industry a black eye.”
To contact DOPL
Reach the state Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing by calling 801-530-6628 or by logging on to Dopl.Utah.Gov. Complaints can be submitted anonymously on the site.
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