Felony rape charges against prominent Seattle lawyer
Sep 27, 2012, 3:54 PM | Updated: Sep 28, 2012, 6:07 am
A prominent attorney has been charged with six felony counts, including three counts of first-degree rape in a series of sexual assaults against women at massage parlors in Seattle and Bellevue.
Formal charges were announced Thursday against Danford Grant, 47, who is now accused in the rape or attempted rape of four women over a period of several months.
According to court documents, the first known attack occurred on July 23 at Carnation Massage in Seattle’s Greenwood neighborhood.
Grant allegedly paid for a massage at the parlor and asked the victim whether she was alone. Once in a private room, Grant removed his clothing and pushed the victim onto a massage table, according to charging documents. He then stated he planned to have sex with her.
Suddenly, Grant got off the victim and apologized, according to the documents.
“I’m sorry, I am crazy, I have never done this before,” he said.
The documents state the victim gave detectives a pair of her pants that Grant allegedly ejaculated on.
The next attack occurred on August 19, when prosecutors claim Grant broke into the Shoreline home of a former Carnation Massage employee and forcibly raped her.
A third attack occurred at a massage parlor in Bellevue on August 28. The victim told detectives Grant raped her at knife point after he asked her to leave her husband. Grant allegedly told the victim he knew her home address.
In an exclusive interview, the victim told KIRO Radio the attack was a “nightmare.”
“Those eyes. They stand out to me, because we were fighting for a while in the massage room,” she said. “And I’ll never ever forget those eyes.”
The fourth and fifth attacks occurred just five days apart at Carnation Massage.
According to documents, Grant entered the parlor on Sept. 19 and paid for a massage. Once in a private room, he allegedly raped a woman at knife point.
Four days later, on Sept. 24, Grant returned to the massage parlor and paid for service. Prosecutors say that is when Grant sexually assaulted the same woman for a second time. The owner of the parlor and several other employees attempted to detain Grant, but he slipped away, according to the documents.
Seattle police officers located Grant a short distance away. He was placed under arrest after witnesses identified him as the man who had been at the parlor.
Detectives collected a towel at the scene that may contain traces of the suspect’s semen.
Grant, a married father of three, is a partner at the law firm Bailey Grant Onsager and has handled appeals for the Washington Court of Appeals, the Washington Supreme Court, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, according to his personal Web site. He has also worked for the Seattle City Attorney’s Office.
He is being held on $3 million bail.
>>>Read the charging documents
