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“These woman who are now complaining have said nothing about this before. None of these women made a complaint or stopped the massage,” attorney Ron Bar-Nadav told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. “Only after the first complaint was filed, did these other woman come forward.”
A grand jury in Hackensack indicted his client, 52-year-old licensed massage therapist Felipe Cruz, on nearly a dozen counts of “unwanted sexual contact” and three counts of sexual assault by digital penetration.
Bar-Nadav said the first complaint came from a woman who bought a Groupon coupon for a massage. The others quickly followed, he said.
“In other cases, there have been female message therapists who were merely charged with prostitution for similar conduct in a massage session,” Bar-Nadav said. “However, as a male therapist, he has been charged with far more serious offenses.
“Certainly, it appears to be an unfair and prejudicial enforcement of the law.”
Bar-Nadav said he was misquoted as knowing the six customers who complained. He said he’d merely pointed out that Cruz had several repeat customers — not that these, in fact, were.
Cruz has remained held on $25,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail since Englewood police and members of the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office arrested him on Nov. 22.
MUGSHOT: Courtesy ENGLEWOOD PD
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