Masseuse in Court on Sex Assault Charges

Three women say he sexually assaulted them while performing massages in Seal Beach. During the investigation, he continued to provide massages in Mission Viejo.

Now a Sunset Beach masseuse is scheduled to appear in court Friday for a pretrial hearing on three felony charges.

Jason Michael Elliott, 28, pleaded not guilty last year to assault with intent to commit a sexual offense, according to Orange County Superior Court records.

Elliott worked at a Seal Beach franchise of the Massage Envy chain from August 2009 to April 2010 before the company fired him amid a police investigation, prosecutors said.

Despite the investigation, Elliott continued to work as a masseuse in Mission Viejo and other parts of Orange County. In 2011, the California Massage Therapy Council revoked his certification.

The case began Nov. 8, 2009, when a 33-year-old woman told police Elliott had sexually assaulted her that day at the Seal Beach Boulevard Massage Envy. As detectives investigated her claim, they found two other alleged victims.

Prosecutors allege Elliott sexually assaulted a 30-year-old woman at the same business during a spa treatment on Sept. 30, 2009, and a 21-year-old woman who paid for a massage April 29, 2010.

Although prosecutors sought more victims beginning last year, none have been added to the case.

Elliott remains free on $100,000 bail, but faces up to eight years and eight months in prison if convicted.

Elliott isn’t Orange County’s only Massage Envy masseuse to be accused of sexual assault in the last year. Earlier, two women accused Mark Pergil Valenzon, a masseuse at the Laguna Beach location, of masturbating and pressing up against them during a massage. The women in that case are also suing the salon, alleging the company covered up "knowledge that Valenzon was a threat to his female clients."

Massage Envy has also been named in other lawsuits involving rape and sexual assault in Tustin, Maryland, Texas, Utah and Kansas City.