A man who police say posed as a massage therapist and sexually assaulted several women pleaded not guilty to five felony charges. NBC 7’s Shandel Menezes reports.
Christopher Scott Preston never had a massage therapy license, according to San Diego Police, who said on Tuesday that he had a license number listed on a Groupon page but that he made the number up and has been running his business based on that lie for six years.
So far, three women have come forward allegedly that Preston, 55 sexually assaulted them.
The first woman came forward in August 2023, according to detectives, who said she told them she went to Preston for a lymphatic massage and was sexually assaulted.
Initially, the woman wasn’t comfortable moving forward with an investigation, but then a second woman came forward last December and third one in April.
Get top local stories in San Diego delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC San Diego's News Headlines newsletter.
In a criminal complaint, the women accused Preston of groping them and sexually assaulting them with a foreign object.
A major piece in the investigation was a 50%-off Groupon advertisement that police said Preston used to get clients. The offer shows reviews, business hours and the fake license number.
“Be very wary of ads,” San Diego Police Sex Crimes Unit Lt. Dan Sayasan said. “I mean, if it sounds too good to be true, it's probably not true, so definitely make sure you check that the business is a legitimate business and has their license before you proceed.”
Local
NBC 7 reached out to Groupon for a statement response. Spokesperson, Mike Tepeli, wrote back:
“At Groupon, the safety and well-being of our customers are of utmost importance. We take any allegations of misconduct seriously and cooperate with authorities as needed. We are gathering further information about this incident, which we learned about today. In the interim, we have removed the merchant’s promotion from our platform. We are also refunding all outstanding vouchers and are assisting customers with any questions or concerns they may have. Until we have further information, we cannot comment further at this time.”
Sayasan, who said the business closed a few months ago, added that there could be other victims than the three who came forward and that he was encouraging them to do so.
“In a lot of these cases, the victims are either embarrassed to come forward, not knowing if that's part of the massage or not,” Sayasan said. “But we want people — if you're concerned about what happened with you, please come forward and talk to our detectives so we can figure it out.”
Preston’s preliminary hearing is set for later this month. He faces up to 11 years in prison if convicted.
In the meantime, he has been released from custody under the conditions that he wear a GPS monitor, stay 100 yards away from his former work place, not give professional services and not contact any of his alleged victims.
