Community Corner

Bail for Attorney Lowered in Massage Therapist Rape Case, New Victim Added

Danford Grant now faces seven charges in connection to a series of sexual assaults of local massage therapists, including a rape in Bellevue in August.

Bail for Danford Grant, the Seattle attorney accused in a series of rapes of massage therapists, including one in Bellevue, was lowered from $3 million to $1 million Thursday (Oct. 25) morning at the King County Courthouse, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office.

King County prosecutors also added another count of first-degree rape for an alleged sexual assault involving another victim, according to the Prosecuting Attorney's Office, which means that Grant faces seven charges in all. The latest charges involve a cashier at a Seattle massage therapy business, who said she was raped by Grant and identified him in a photo lineup, according to charging papers.

The first-degree rape charge is added to the three counts of first-degree rape, one count of second-degree rape, one count of attempted second-degree rape and one count of first-degree burglary that were brought against Grant earlier this month. Grant has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

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In all, the original charges involved attacks against three massage therapists, including an attack of a Bellevue massage therapist and the rape of a Shoreline massage therapist at her home.

Grant was arrested after a massage therapist in Seattle reported a sexual assault by a customer, and Seattle police arrested him after other employees at the massage therapy center tried to detain him.

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That incident came less than a month after an Aug. 28 attack, in which a Bellevue massage therapist told police she was sexually assaulted at knifepoint, Bellevue police reported. 

Grant is a longtime attorney who has practiced in the Seattle area, including getting a master of laws degree from the University of Washington in 1996 an focusing on employment litigation in the Seattle City Attorney's Office from 1996 to 2000, according to his Linked In profile. Grant became one of the named shareholders of Bailey Grant Onsager earlier this year, according to the law firm's website.

Grant is scheduled for a case setting hearing on November 9 at 8:30 a.m. before Judge Mary Yu in courtroom W-928.


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