A massage therapist arrested in June for sexually assaulting female massage clients in Chehalis between 2021 and 2023 has pleaded guilty to rape and indecent liberties charges in Lewis County Superior Court.
In a guilty plea dated Sept. 1, Michael Frietze, 46, of Chehalis, admitted to sexually assaulting three separate female patients: one on or about June 23, 2023; one on or about April 11, 2023; and one between May and June of 2022.
He pleaded guilty to one count of indecent liberties without forcible compulsion stemming from the June 2023 incident; one count of second-degree rape without forcible compulsion stemming from the April 2023 incident, and one count of second-degree rape without forcible compulsion stemming from the 2022 incident.
Each incident occurred while the victim was “a patient of mine for whom I was practicing massage therapy in a treatment session during the (sexual assault),” Frietze wrote in a guilty plea filed in Lewis County Superior Court. “For the victims’ and the courts’ benefit, although a lack of consent is not an element of the crimes, I want to make it clear that none of these actions were consensual.”
The convictions will require Frietze to register as a sex offender.
As part of the guilty plea, three counts of indecent liberties without forcible compulsion, stemming from three separate incidents between June 2022 and June 2023 involving three separate female victims, have been dismissed.
The plea also counts as a “global resolution” to the case and by agreeing to accept the plea, “the state agrees they shall not and will not prosecute the defendant for any crimes committed prior to the date of sentencing that were committed during the course of medical treatment, to include massage/massage therapy, he performed on any victims presently known or unknown,” according to court documents.
The clause includes an exception for crimes involving “forcible compulsion” or crimes “where the victim was under the age of 18 at the time of the offense.”
A sentencing hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 16.
Frietze was booked into the Lewis County Jail when he entered his guilty plea on Sept. 1 and will not be allowed to post bail ahead of his sentencing hearing. He was initially arrested on June 27 and bail was set at $50,000.
The prosecuting attorney plans to recommend a sentence of a total of 170 months in prison followed by a lifetime in community custody, in addition to sexual assault protection orders in favor of Frietze’s victims from both charged and uncharged offenses, and a requirement for Frietze to register as a sex offender.
The sentencing judge is not required to follow the prosecuting attorney’s recommendation but is generally limited by state law to the standard sentencing range, which in Frietze’s case is 57 to 75 months for the indecent liberties charge and 146 to 194 months to life for the rape charges.
The investigation into Frietze was opened after a victim reported a possible assault at a business in the 2500 block of Northwest Kresky Avenue at 10:52 a.m. on June 23, according to the Chehalis Police Department.
The victim told law enforcement she had received multiple massages from Frietze in the past without incident, but alleged that during a scheduled massage on June 23, Frietze reached beneath the sheet multiple times and touched her inappropriately. The victim reportedly “stopped the massage by telling (Frietze) the massage needed to be done, and left,” according to an affidavit of probable cause filed in Lewis County Superior Court on Wednesday, June 28.
Between that first report on June 23 and when detectives referred the case to local prosecutors on June 27, a total of six victims came forward to report incidents of alleged sexual abuse by Frietze, according to the affidavit.
A Lewis County Superior Court judge approved sexual assault protection orders for 17 separate victims when Frietze entered his guilty plea on Sept. 1.
Anyone who believes they may have been a victim in this case can contact the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office at 360-740-1240. Information on the prosecutor’s office’s victim and witness program is available online at https://lewiscountywa.gov/offices/prosecutor/victim-witness-program/.
Frietze’s massage therapist license was first issued in November 2020 and was still active as of Tuesday, according to Washington state Department of Health records. Frietze’s attorney, Shane O’Rourke, has previously indicated Frietze intends to permanently relinquish his massage therapy license.
