Posted: 21:32, August 2, 2022 | Updated: 22:30, 2 August 2022
A New York woman is suing home massage service app Soothe, claiming one of its therapists raped her at home after being hired by her husband for a Valentine’s Day treat. The woman is not named in her lawsuit against the California-based startup, filed yesterday in Brooklyn Supreme Court. She claims the man — who used the fake name of Hernando Giraldo — raped her in her Brooklyn home and that he had a previous arrest on his record for sexually assaulting a different Soothe client. Now, the woman is suing the app, which has thousands of therapists in 73 cities in the US, UK, Canada and Australia and claims to be the “premier” home massage app. Like Uber and Lyft, which contract drivers, the company gives employee contracts to therapists. Founded in 2013 in California, it has raised more than $70 million in funding over the past nine years while maintaining private ownership. On Tuesday, the woman claimed in a video played at a news conference that she now wakes up in the middle of the night, fearing another attack. The woman is not named in her lawsuit against the California-based startup, filed yesterday in Brooklyn Supreme Court. In a recorded statement obtained by DailyMail.com, she told how he raped her when she was at her “most vulnerable”. The lawsuit filed against Soothe in Brooklyn Supreme Court on Monday The woman’s husband was out of town when she ordered the massage on February 14, 2022. She claims the therapist, using the fake name, arrived and immediately assaulted her. He fled and is still at large. She immediately reported the attack to the police and was then told the man – whose real name is not known – had previously been reported by a different Soothe customer for similar allegations. The details of the incident remain unclear. “While alone in my home and most vulnerable, with a much older man, he abused that power and raped me. I am traumatized by this event. Soothe, a California-based start-up, has not commented on the allegations “He knows where I live. I live in fear of this monster coming back to my house. “I’ve been in therapy and I wake up a million times a night. Does he have a criminal record? Does he have a mental illness? Is he incredibly violent? Does he have a gun? ‘I do not know. Does Soothe know?’ the woman said in a somber statement captured on video obtained by DailyMail.com, where her identity has been withheld. “This fear is so strong that I seriously considered moving, turning my life upside down. just to escape the capture of this predator sent by Soothe to my doorstep. Embarrassed and extremely upset, my husband and I contacted Soothe about the incident. Sooth referred us to the testing and security team, didn’t contact me or my husband for almost a whole week, and only after we contacted the CEO on LinkedIn. “They gave us a fake name. This has shaken me to the core…I fear not only for myself but for others who may be victims of this person.” Soothe did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com’s questions about the multiple complaints on Tuesday afternoon. On the company’s website, it claims to review all of the thousands of independent therapists it works with.
