×

Charge dropped against former massage therapist

JOSEPH RANKIN, RIGHT, and defense attorney Roy Polich listen to testimony at a hearing for Rankin’s criminal sexual conduct and unauthorized massage practice charges in Iron County Trial Court. (Nikki Younk/Daily News photo)

CRYSTAL FALLS — Yet another charge was dismissed Tuesday against a former Iron River massage therapist accused of practicing without a license and criminal sexual conduct.

Iron County Trial Court Judge C. Joseph Schwedler decided there was insufficient evidence against 25-year-old Joseph E. Rankin Jr. to move forward with a charge of criminal sexual conduct-fourth degree, a two-year high court misdemeanor.

Force or coercion needs to be an element of the offense, and the judge determined that was not the case.

A woman testified Rankin touched her inappropriately on two occasions during a massage Aug. 22 at Rankin’s Full Circle Fitness & Massage in Iron River. She claimed Rankin had straddled her while she was laying on her stomach, pinning her arms to her sides with his legs.

However, defense attorney Roy Polich noted she was never “overcome through force or violence,” and Rankin immediately stopped when she told him she was uncomfortable.

Rankin now only faces charges of health profession-unauthorized practice, a four-year felony, and obscenity, a one-year misdemeanor. He will return to court Feb. 10 for a circuit court arraignment on the felony and a district court pre-trial on the misdemeanor.

Rankin was not a licensed massage therapist in August when the incident occurred, prosecutors claimed, as he permanently gave up his license in March as part of a settlement on criminal sexual conduct charges from 2015.

Polich argued Tuesday the unauthorized practice charge should have been dropped as well, pointing to the woman’s testimony she and Rankin were friends and the fact she didn’t pay for the massage. He also contends she knew he didn’t have a license.

Friends giving friends uncompensated massages shouldn’t constitute a crime, Polich said.

Prosecutor Stephanie Brule noted the woman clarified she and Rankin only were friends in a business setting, as personal trainer and client. Although the woman did not pay extra for the massage, she did pay a monthly fee to Full Circle Fitness & Massage, Brule said.

In addition, Brule pointed to the woman’s testimony Rankin never told fitness clients about giving up his massage license and she saw him giving two massages in that time period.

Schwedler sided with Brule and bound Rankin over to circuit court on that charge.

A second count of felony health profession-unauthorized practice previously was dismissed after Dickinson County Circuit Court Judge Mary B. Barglind determined Schwedler should not have sent it to circuit court.

In that case, a different woman testified Rankin gave her a 10-minute neck and shoulder massage at Full Circle in May or early June.

Barglind cited Polich’s claims that Rankin was not “holding himself out” as a massage therapist — the woman knew he didn’t have a license, Rankin and the woman were friends and Rankin was not compensated for the massage — as reasons for her decision.

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today