A warning that this story includes descriptions of sexual assault.
Jackson County District Attorney Beth Heckert charged former Ashland massage therapist Kevin Farrow with three counts of third degree sexual abuse on Sept. 18.
If Farrow is convicted, he could face up to three years in jail and a fine.
Jefferson Public Radio has spoken with two women who claim Farrow sexually assaulted them during massage appointments at Southern Oregon Chiropractic in Ashland.
When reached by phone, Farrow vehemently denied the accusations by the two women and declined to comment further. JPR sent him a formal written request laying out all allegations; he did not respond.
JPR talked to these women while reporting this story over the past three months.
‘I was just in absolute denial’
The first woman lives in the Rogue Valley and started visiting the clinic in 2017 to help address her autoimmune disorder. JPR isn’t naming her as an individual reporting sexual assault.
She told JPR that she had multiple appointments with Farrow and that she was initially comfortable with him.
But she said in summer 2017, she was laying facedown on the massage table, naked from the waist up, when Farrow put his penis on her elbow, through his pants.
“I was just in absolute denial that Kevin would do that. And I was just like, that had to be a mistake, that had to be a mistake,” she said.
The woman told JPR she doubted herself, thinking that she must have misunderstood what had happened or that it was an accident. But the same thing happened again during another appointment, she said.
"I absolutely froze because I was like, 'This is happening, this is real.' And I just went into shock, and I did not know how to respond," she said.
She didn’t report the assault for about two years, which she said never occurred to her to do, partially due to previous assaults she experienced.
In 2019, on the recommendation of her primary care doctor, she went back to the clinic to report the incidents to the office manager, Tonya Lewis. She said Lewis didn’t take a lot of notes during their meeting and never followed up.
The woman reporting the assaults said about a month after reporting them to Lewis, while at the clinic for an acupuncture appointment, she saw Farrow taking a patient back to his room. She said she asked Lewis if anything had come of her complaint. Lewis said she had asked Farrow about the incidents, and he claimed he didn’t remember them, according to the unnamed woman.
Southern Oregon Chiropractic’s CEO Rachelle Sinclair declined to comment, as did her lawyer, Ryan Vanderhoof. JPR left three messages for Lewis by phone. Sinclair then sent an email to JPR warning that she would send a cease-and-desist letter. JPR also sent Sinclair and Lewis formal written requests laying out all allegations; they did not respond.
Around the same time period in 2019, another woman named Nora Costley, a 34-year-old artist, started visiting Southern Oregon Chiropractic after a car accident.
Costley said that in November 2021, in the middle of a session, Farrow put his penis in her hand, through his pants.
“I felt all 10 fingers on my back. So I counted, and I was just really aware and really conscious of what was happening,” she said. “A lot of things went through my mind. I'm like, ‘Do I get up and run out and scream or whatever?’ And I was like, ‘Well, I'm naked here on this table, so.’”
JPR corroborated details of these women’s stories with five acquaintances who were told about the assaults first-hand.
Costley said she froze and didn’t know what to do. After the massage, she called a friend – one of the people JPR spoke with – then contacted the Jackson County Sexual Assault Response Team. Later in November, she reported it to the Ashland Police, who began an investigation.
Investigation underway
Ashland Police provided the Jackson County District Attorney with information from their investigation, according to APD Detective Sergeant Bon Stewart.
In August 2023, he confirmed that an investigation into Farrow was underway but declined to say how many women were involved or how many reports had been made. Stewart said the investigation began in November 2021 after a report was made to the department, which coincides with the report Costley made to APD.
The unnamed woman said she was contacted by APD in July 2022 and has been participating in the investigation. She also reported her experiences to the Oregon Board of Chiropractic Examiners and Oregon Board of Massage Therapists.
OBCE and OBMT declined to comment on this situation or to make any information about these reports public, citing privacy rules.
The OBMT’s rules regarding complaints and discipline say the board may discipline a licensed massage therapist for reasons like unprofessional or dishonorable conduct, which includes “any conduct involving inappropriate physical contact or sexual misconduct”, including “any conduct with a client that is sexual, or may be reasonably interpreted as sexual.”
Publicly available documents show that Farrow voluntarily surrendered his license to the OBMT in January 2022. In signing the Voluntary Surrender of License Final Order, Farrow recognized “that professional misconduct allegations are now pending against me before the Board.” He no longer works at Southern Oregon Chiropractic, where he worked for about five years, according to his LinkedIn profile. The circumstances of his departure are unclear. His LinkedIn profile does not list body work as a current occupation.
In a company letter that was sent to the unnamed woman after she reported the assault to Jackson Care Connect, the health insurance agency said they had received a complaint similar to hers from another member. The agency said the CEO knew that the manager had opportunities to handle the issue, which had been a problem for some time. The letter said the CEO acknowledged that Southern Oregon Chiropractic had received complaints about Farrow, which were handled internally, and asked the Jackson County Sexual Assault Response Team to provide training to management and staff to better equip them to handle any future issues. It also said the CEO worked with detectives and agreed to report any additional accusations against Farrow.
JPR was provided with a copy of this letter, as well as all other documents referenced in this story.
‘If you feel uncomfortable, then it’s not okay’
A licensed massage therapist who worked at the clinic with Farrow showed JPR a written complaint about him that she submitted to office manager Tonya Lewis in February 2021. This therapist asked that JPR not use her name due to fears of retaliation. In the letter, she wrote about a conversation she had with a client who was a minor; the girl was crying, saying Farrow had done work farther down on her body than she was comfortable with, including cupping her butt.
“The bottom line of massage therapy, if you feel uncomfortable, then it's not okay,” the therapist said in an interview with JPR. “And that goes for male, female, whoever. [If] at any point you feel uncomfortable in your massage, by your provider, it's not okay.”
The letter says she encouraged the client to report this incident. It’s unclear if the client did so.
This therapist has been an LMT for 12 years and said client comfort and safety, as well as professionalism, are of paramount importance in the industry.
“As a massage therapist and as a professional, you kind of know where your body parts are,” she said.
She left Southern Oregon Chiropractic in February 2021 for a variety of reasons.
While some of these events date back as far as six years, the two women who spoke with JPR are concerned Farrow might have assaulted other women, who they hope might come forward.
“Ultimately, I want to stop him from hurting other women because it really affected me, and I wouldn't ever want anyone to suffer that,” Costley said.
Susan Moen, executive director of the Jackson County Sexual Assault Response Team, said that in general, most perpetrators assault multiple people.
But she said there are barriers to survivors coming forward.
“Many survivors feel like they won't be believed if they come forward, or they won't be treated with respect. And that is definitely part of our systemic approach to sexual violence,” she said.
She said there are a lot of myths and misconceptions about sexual violence, including that women frequently make up allegations.
Moen has seen cases involving body workers like massage therapists, where survivors are especially prone to second guessing themselves since they’re already in a vulnerable position.
She said these survivors generally start out by saying they don’t want to blow these situations out of proportion, then usually go on to say something like, “‘But when I was getting this treatment, the practitioner kept touching me on parts of my body that didn't seem related to what they were doing. Or they didn't ask me first, and they were just doing these things to me. And it made me feel super uncomfortable.’ But they always second guess themselves and say, ‘But I'm sure it was just part of the treatment.’”
Now, these two women want justice to be served.
Costley has moved out of state, in part because of this incident, she told JPR.
“This experience really changed the way I look at health care facilities. And it also limits who I can go see because I'm not comfortable seeing a male health care provider anymore where I once was,” she said.
Farrow’s arraignment will be on October 17.
Resources:
—Jackson County Sexual Assault Response Team can be reached at jcsart@charter.net or 541-840-0904 (M-F, 9-5). They provide free, compassionate, 24/7 care and evidence collection at all Jackson and Josephine County hospitals within seven days. Walk into any hospital ER. No police involvement required.
—National Sexual Assault Hotline: 1-800-656-4673
—HelpLine's 24/7 hotline is run by Community Works: 541-779-4357
—Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: call 988
