List of Victims Grows As Lawyer Is Charged in Massage Therapist Rapes

Calling him "an extreme danger to the community," prosecutors on Thursday charged Seattle attorney Danford D. Grant in a series of sexual attacks on four massage therapists, including one in Bellevue and one in Shoreline.

Three of the women had worked at the Carnation Massage Clinic in Seattle's Greenlake neighborhood. Grant was arrested earlier this week after police say he attacked a massage therapist at that business.

The King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office added a fourth victim as they laid out charges Thursday:

"The facts of this case show that the defendant is an extreme danger to the community. The defendant engaged in a violent, attempted rape of a massage parlor employee in July in which he grabbed the victim and covered her mouth and tried pulling down her pants. In mid-August he broke down the door of a home and violently raped another maassage therapist inside. In late August, he raped a massage therapist in Bellevue at knife point. In mid-September, he raped a fourth victim at knife point at a massage parlor. And in late September, he attacked the fourth victim again and forcibly raped her. He is alleged to have attacked and sexually assaulted (or tried to sexually assault) four women in five separate incidents in approximately two months He is also under investigation for similar attacks and sexual assaults on other victims."

Grant was charged with 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. 

Grant's bail  by King County Superior Court Judge Mark C. Chow.

Grant, 47, recently became one the named partners in the Bailey Grant Onsager law firm in Seattle. According to his bio on the website, Grant focuses on employment and business litigation.

Prosecutors said that Grant "has demonstrated an ability and intent to research and intimidate victims into complying with his demands and therefore poses a threat to the administration of justice."

According to police reports, Grant was arrested Monday at the Carnation Massage Clinic, at 602 N.W. 85th St. in Seattle. Witnesses told investigators that he raped one of the massage therapists at knifepoint, and employees tried to detain him as they called police. Grant tried to run, but police caught him after a chase, reports said.

The therapist told police that Grant had sexually assaulted her previously at the business.

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

The Bellevue massage therapist, 45, told police that the suspect scheduled a massage at the business in the 15200 block of N.E. 20th St. and started to make sexual advances toward her during the appointment.

According to the police department, when the woman refused his offer, he grew angry, threatened her with a pocket knife and proceeded to sexually assault her. The victim told police she recognized him as being a past client of the business, but she didn't know his name, police said.  He had come to the business using multiple names, including "Daniel," "Hunter" and "Bob," according to the court documents.

The Bellevue massage therapist also told investigators that another Bellevue massage therapist had been raped by the same man who attacked her two years ago, though that massage therapist did not call police at the time because she did not have a license.

The fourth woman who was added to the list of victims in Thursday's court documents said that she was attacked at Carnation Massage Clinic, the same business where two of the other victims had first met Grant. The massage therapist who was attacked in her Shoreline home previously had worked at Carnation Massage Clinic.

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.

David Allen, his attorney, said Wednesday that the employees at the massage business detained Grant by mistake.

"He is innocent of these charges, until and unless the state can prove it beyond a reasonable doubt which (we) have great doubts that they can," Allen said.

Grant is scheduled to be arraigned on Oct. 11 at 8:30 a.m. at the King County Courthouse