#HOME DESIGNER PRO 2016 TRIAL#
“But I don’t want to get into the case, necessarily.”Įlliott’s original trial for that 2016 arrest ended in a mistrial in May 2018, according to a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office. “It is highly coincidental that somebody would be accused of similar conduct,” said Lorusso when asked if he was concerned about the apparent similarities. When reached by phone, Elliott maintained that the accusations in 2016 and those he faces today are not, in fact, similar, but declined to comment further.
Like the current accuser, the woman in the 2016 case said that she had been previously treated by Elliott without incident. But you don’t really know what you would do until you’re in that situation. “Somebody might hear that a woman froze during a sexual assault and not understand why she would do that. “This freeze response is not uncommon in sexual assaults and other highly stressful situations,” says University of Pennsylvania faculty emeritus Kathleen Brown, who has done extensive research in victimology and sexual assault. According to a court document Philly Mag has obtained from the official file of the Pennsylvania Board of Massage Therapy, the accuser told investigators that she was “in shock and afraid to move.” The 2016 charges came after a woman alleged that Elliott sexually assaulted her using his hands and mouth during a massage in her Rittenhouse Square home. In 2016, when he was doing business under the company name Felicity Massage & Wellness, Elliott, then 44, was arrested and charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and aggravated indecent assault, among other alleged offenses, though he was ultimately acquitted and a court ordered that the charges be expunged from his record, as required by Pennsylvania law. What Elliott’s accuser didn’t know when she scheduled her massage was that this wasn’t the first time a client had accused him of improper touching. The only reason I decided to report this and to come forward now is to protect other women. “I was so embarrassed, and I really wanted to avoid being a part of the criminal justice system. “I wasn’t sure that I even wanted to report this to the police,” she says. She tells Philly Mag that she had a previous massage with Elliott and that nothing inappropriate had occurred on that occasion. The woman says she found Elliott through a referral from a chiropractor.
And after, I was really upset with myself that I couldn’t fight back.” “I couldn’t process what was happening to me.
“I was in shock,” says the woman, who spoke with Philly Mag under the condition of anonymity. The day after Elliott’s visit to her home, she called the police and was later interviewed at the Special Victims Unit. She said that she “froze” during the encounter.Īccording to that police report, the woman told a friend what had happened right after the massage and her husband just a short time later that same afternoon. She told police that Elliott touched her breasts and genitals and digitally penetrated her without her consent and that he “tugged her hair and choked her a little bit,” as a Special Victims Unit detective described it in a police report. According to court documents, a female client claimed that Elliott assaulted her during an in-home massage. The charge stems from an alleged incident at a home in South Philadelphia on Sunday, September 26th, of last year. He confirmed the suspension of Elliott’s massage license. “Eric vehemently denies it occurred,” says Elliott’s attorney, Vincent Lorusso, when asked about the alleged assault. He is currently out on $150,000 bail awaiting trial. Just over a week prior to the state’s decision, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner had charged Elliott with aggravated indecent assault without consent, a second-degree felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
#HOME DESIGNER PRO 2016 LICENSE#
Those records establish that the 50-year-old massage therapist’s license was suspended by the state’s Board of Massage Therapy on February 9th after a state prosecutor successfully argued that Elliott, who has been accused of sexually assaulting a client during a massage, is an “immediate and clear danger to the public health and safety.” The woman who made the appointment had invited me to observe his arrival at her home to demonstrate that he is out there performing massages when, according to state court and agency records, he is not supposed to be. The thing is, Elliott should have never been there.