A California luxury spa chain has been accused of covering up a series of sexual assaults on guests by masseuses at its five-star hotels.
Two lawsuits filed against the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn and Spa and its sister hotel, the Claremont Club & Spa in Berkeley, both owned by the Accor Group, allege a pattern of abuse and cover-up by staff dating back 20 years.
In court documents seen by DailyMail.com, a 50-year-old woman said she was receiving a massage at the Sonoma spa in December 2017 when her masseuse sexually assaulted her, inserting his fingers into her vagina.
In another lawsuit, a 48-year-old woman said a different masseuse “grabbed her legs and spread them” and then “inserted his fingers into her vagina for approximately one minute.”
In both cases, the women alleged that hotel staff failed to take appropriate action, offering the first victim a complimentary bottle of wine and the second a free night’s stay.
The woman’s lawyer, Micha Liberty, told DailyMail.com that there have been more than a dozen allegations of “horrible” sexual misconduct by staff at the two resorts since 2003.
Multiple lawsuits filed against the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn and Spa (pictured) and its sister hotel, the Claremont Club & Spa, allege a series of sexual assaults by massage staff.
The lawsuits list more than a dozen other allegations of sexual misconduct against the two resorts since 2003.
Daniel Cortright (pictured) was accused of sexually assaulting a woman at the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn. He told DailyMail.com that the allegations were “completely false and fabricated and presented to force a settlement from Fairmont.”
The suites are centered around five-star Wine Country resorts, where guests pay up to $1,500 a night to stay in luxurious rooms surrounded by manicured grounds with pools, gyms and golf courses.
The first lawsuit against the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn and Spa was filed in November 2018 by a 50-year-old woman identified only as Jane Doe.
Doe claimed that during her stay at the hotel in December 2017, she was sexually assaulted by her masseuse, a man named Daniel Cortright.
She claimed that during the massage he touched her vagina without consent and told her ‘you’re wet down there.’
She said she made an excuse to leave the room, found her husband and informed resort manager Kacey O’Rourke.
According to court documents, O’Rourke did not call police and instead sent a complimentary bottle of wine to Doe and her husband.
Doe reported the incident to police, who investigated but never referred the case to prosecutors, so she filed her civil complaint against the hotel and its owners.
According to Liberty, Doe’s attorney, the lawsuit was settled for an undisclosed sum and Cortright was fired.
Daniel Cortright told DailyMail.com that the allegations were “completely false and fabricated and presented to force a settlement from Fairmont.”
He added that “the lawsuit was dismissed without admitting any liability.”
The suites target staff at five-star Wine Country resorts, where guests pay up to $1,500 a night to stay in luxury rooms.
The hotels are surrounded by perfectly manicured grounds with swimming pools, gyms and golf courses.
The first lawsuit against the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn and Spa was filed in November 2018.
In March of this year, a different woman, a 48-year-old woman from Tennessee also identified as Jane Doe, filed a second lawsuit against the resorts in Alameda County Superior Court.
She claimed that a masseuse named Vincent Ahern, 53, had groped and penetrated her during an hour-long massage at the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn in September 2022.
Her husband had booked the massage for her as a gift after they won the stay at a charity auction.
But in the lawsuit, Doe said her life “was forever changed when she was exposed to a sexual predator by a global hotel chain she trusted.”
It adds: ‘Vincent James Ahern sexually assaulted Ms. Doe when she was trapped in a dark massage room with no safe escape.
‘He grabbed her legs and spread them. Then she inserted her fingers into her vagina for about a minute.
Doe felt “nausea” and went to tell her husband what had happened. She told the hotel manager, Edward Roe, who called the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office and offered to reimburse the couple for the massage.
The lawsuit said: “As if such trivial elements could excuse a sexual assault and a profound breach of trust.”
The lawsuit claims there have been more than two decades of sexual assaults at the neighboring sister property of the Claremont Hotel & Spa (pictured).
It lists more than a dozen separate incidents at the hotel and spa from 2003 to 2019.
Attorney Micha Liberty told the San Francisco Chronicle: “The sheer number of victims should be a call to action to address this insidious problem.”
range said the san francisco chronicle that after she reported the incident to the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, deputies attempted to discourage her from pressing charges.
She said the officers highlighted how long and grueling the process would be, telling her it was a “your word against his” situation.
She told the newspaper: ‘I was made to believe this was a waste of time. I felt so lost and defeated. Someone in authority said there was nothing they could do.
In the latest lawsuit, the plaintiff alleges that the incidents are just the latest in a series of allegations against staff at the two resorts.
The lawsuit states: ‘In the years leading up to Cortright’s assault, including the year before, several female massage clients complained to the hotel defendants that their masseuses had sexually assaulted them during massages.
‘They did not investigate the allegations, discipline the masseuses or implement their own prevention method.
“Inconceivably, there have been over two decades of sexual assaults at the Claremont Hotel & Spa’s neighboring sister property.”
The lawsuit lists more than a dozen separate incidents that attorney Micha Liberty, who represented Jane Does, said are “confirmed allegations of which the Fairmonts have been notified.”
Liberty told DailyMail.com: ‘It is no surprise that we see multiple allegations of this type of horrific abuse when the corporate entity takes no real action to clean up practices and hold people accountable.
‘It is not enough to fire a single author. There are easy and cheap solutions, but these entities look the other way time and again because they are making money.
‘These hotels have a culture of cover-up and abuse. It’s rare to have places like these two where there are multiple reports and they just allow the abuse to continue without real reforms. “We know that if there is no real accountability, they will do it again.”
DailyMail.com has contacted Accor Hotel & Resorts for comment.
