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John R. Popper, 48, of Little Egg Harbor was convicted earlier this year of harassment by offensive touching for placing his hand on a client’s vagina during a massage at Hand and Stone spa in Somers Point.
In turn, the state Board of Massage and Bodywork Therapy permanently barred him from working as a massage therapist in New Jersey ever again because he “engaged in professional misconduct and committed a crime of moral turpitude,” state Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said.
Concerns about “unwanted sexual contact in professional settings” have triggered a review of how the 51 professional boards under the state Division of Consumer Affairs address allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse by licensees and applicants, Grewal said.
The goal, he said, is to ensure that boards uniformly adopt best practices and enforce their rules.
The boards oversee roughly 720,000 active licensed professionals, from accountants and doctors to plumbers, veterinarians, and massage therapists, the attorney general said.
“No client or patient should ever have to fear for their personal safety while interacting with a licensed professional in this state,” Grewal said. “By revoking the licenses of massage therapists who prey on their clients, the [state] is carrying out its duty to protect the public.”
Popper is the third massage therapist in the state this year to have a license revoked by the board because of workplace sexual misconduct.
The board concluded this week that Popper’s conduct was “so egregious and morally reprehensible, and so fundamentally at odds with anything that we would expect of a massage therapist that nothing short of permanent revocation would be sufficient to protect the public health, safety and welfare.”
Among other massage therapists who had their licenses revoked is Jonathan Higgins, who also worked at a Hand and Stone spa, this one in Brick.
Higgins was charged with sexual assault after a client said he inappropriately touched her, Grewal said.
Leonardo Drittij, who worked at a Massage Envy in Short Hills, had his license revoked after he inappropriately touched a female client, tried to engage her in sexual conversation and failed to drape her properly, the attorney general said.
Other massage therapists who had their license revoked for inappropriately touching female clients during sessions, Grewal said, were:
- Asad Aliyev, at a Hand and Stone spa in Allendale;
- Aaron Coile, at the Sage Body and Mind spa in Voorhees;
- Premkumar Perumal, at a Hand and Stone Massage & Facial Spa in Clark and at a Massage Envy in Hoboken;
- Magdy Masek, at a Massage Envy in Piscataway;
- Frank Giordano, two female clients affected at Alternative Bodyworks in Nutley;
- Michael Egan, at a Massage Envy in Closter.
In addition to taking disciplinary action against licensees for alleged sexual contact with clients, the Board of Massage and Bodywork Therapy has adopted new rules to help prevent and detect sexual misconduct and abuse in the industry, Grewal said.
Those rules, among other things:
- Require massage therapists to notify the board of criminal, civil, administrative, and employment actions against them;
- Require massage therapists to report misconduct by others;
- Protect minors from abuse.
Clients who believe that they have been treated by a licensed massage therapist in an inappropriate manner can file a complaint online by visiting the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs website or by calling 1-800-242-5846 (toll-free within NJ) or 973-504- 6200 to receive a paper complaint form by mail.
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