WINDSOR HEIGHTS, Iowa– A massage therapist is free on bond Wednesday, after being accused of sexually assaulting a female client.
Sixty-four year-old Kevin Thoren rented his business space called Banyan Health and Wellness in a Windsor Heights strip mall. It's there a woman tells police she was assaulted.
"I would have never expected it," former co-worker Kelly Patterson-Brown said.
Ex-massage therapist Kevin Thoren rented his space in the same building as Kelly Patterson-Brown.
According to the criminal complaint, Thoren groped a woman during a professional massage back in November.
We took that complaint to Thoern who lives in Ankeny, he wouldn't do an on-camera interview but did deny the allegation.
The criminal complaint says three months after that massage, Thoren went to police and denied the woman's claims.
Thoren said he was performing "energy work" and never goes below the pubic bone, but the woman said during the massage she was terrified.
Patterson-Brown says her heart breaks for the victim.
"Well I feel bad, now she is not going to trust anybody or a massage therapist," Patterson-Brown said.
Thoren shouldn't have been giving massages anyway.
A couple months before the alleged assault, Thoren surrendered his massage therapy license after The Iowa Board of Massage Therapy launched an investigation over claims of misconduct.
Patterson-Brown says Thoren's actions to not represent all massage therapists.
"I want people to think this is a safe and comfortable place to come to and not have to worry," Patterson-Brown said.
The YMCA of Greater Des Moines says Thoren rented a space in one of their facilities from 2009 to January 2017, and over that time, no complaints filed.
Thoren is scheduled to be back in court on April 19.
We reached out to The Iowa Board of Massage Therapy for comment and haven't heard back.