Richland massage therapist gets double the prison time for abusing patients

JoDee Garretson went to a Richland massage therapist for help with persistent back pain, she left traumatized.

Garretson, the director of the Support, Advocacy & Resource Center, said her encounter with Kyle S. Pierce three years ago shook her self-image and left her anxious and unable to get another massage.

“I continue to have nightmares where I wake my husband up screaming as I’m trying to get away from someone trying to touch me,” she said during Pierce’s sentencing this week. “There are nights I lie awake unable to quiet the memories.”

Pierce, 37, entered an Alford plea to four counts of indecent liberties related to his work at two businesses. An Alford plea means Pierce admits he was likely to be convicted at a trial, but didn’t admit to committing the crime. The sentence is the same as a guilty plea.

While the crime normally carries a sentence of up to a year in jail, Benton County Deputy Prosecutor Anita Petra asked for two years in prison because of the aggravating circumstance that he abused his position as a medical professional.

“It’s a medical treatment that they were going there for and the defendant used his position of trust to violate them sexually, and he did this knowingly” Petra argued.

The two-year sentence was a compromise on what each of the victims wanted, Petra said. It also seemed appropriate for the number of women molested.

Garretson told Judge Bronson Brown she wasn’t afraid to speak out in public about what happened to her because she didn’t do anything wrong.

She has worked for nearly 30 years with survivors of sexual violence, but said she wasn’t prepared for it to happen to her. Like many victims, she didn’t react immediately, she said.

“While I know the blame lies solely with him, that ... response has shaken how I see myself,” she said. “Reconciling these conflicting emotions has been one of the hardest parts of my healing.”

It’s been difficult to navigate being a survivor and leading an organization that helps others navigate life after sexual assaults, she told the judge.

“But I’m determined to rebuild the sense of strength and self-respect that he almost took from me,” she said. “I have noticed that I have become almost obsessed with tackling things that scare me, like parachuting or riding rollercoasters because I’m desperate to feel strong again.”

Abuse of trust

Defense Attorney Randall Jameson asked Brown to give Pierce a sentence within the standard range. He brought several letters of support for Pierce, and noted that his client didn’t want to put the women through a trial.

“The contact occurred, but whether it was for sexual gratification, both he and I have discussed a thousand times, because he said it wasn’t,” Jameson said.

Pierce also told the judge that he always followed the correct procedures for covering his clients with sheets, and always had his hands over the covers.

“I’m a good person, a good contribution to the massage world,” he said at Monday’s hearing. “That is something that I’m very proud of, and I have many clients that stayed by me for a long time because of how appropriate and professional I am.”

Judge Bronson Brown said he read the statements and understood the reason why Pierce entered an Alford plea.

“But Mr. Pierce, ... (y)ou pled guilty to four counts of indecent liberties, which means you aren’t the victim,” Brown said. “It would be very different in reading your statement and hearing your statement in court ... it’d be very different if it was in trial and you were in front of a jury, but you’re not.”

He noted that Pierce entered the plea, and even if he didn’t believe it, he violated the trust of his clients who thought they were going there for theraputic massages.

“I have victim statements that they were victimized because you violated a position of trust by inappropriately touching them. And in all your statements, I don’t see where you’ve really admitted that.”

Brown followed the prosecution’s recommendation and sentenced Pierce to two years in prison.

WA license suspended

Pierce received his a massage therapist license from the state in 2011 and began at a Richland massage business, according to the Department of Health investigation.

Richland police started investigating Pierce in 2021 when a woman when to A La Mode Spa, and felt Pierce touch her inappropriately, court documents said.

She called police to report that she was molested. While Pierce denied the contact, police continued looking into his history. They found he had worked at Elements Massage for six to seven years, and then was fired for similar conduct, court documents said.

They discovered three more women had been molested between 2019 and 2020, while he was working at Elements.

Petra said they learned about the victims after news reports of the accusations against Pierce.

Pierce’s massage therapist license was suspended in September 2022, according to the state Department of Health.

This story was originally published September 16, 2025 at 3:44 PM.