‘Courage prevails’ as Seattle attorney pleads guilty to massage parlor rapes

A Seattle attorney who was once a well-respected member of the legal community pleaded guilty Wednesday to the rapes of five women, following a deal with prosecutors that was reached minutes before his trial was scheduled to begin.

Danford Grant, 49, pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree burglary and five counts of third-degree rape in a series of attacks on women at massage parlors in Seattle, Bellevue, and Shoreline. The five counts of rape reflect one for each woman Grant attacked over a period that lasted from April 2011 to his arrest in September 2012.

As part of the deal, Grant agreed to a recommended sentence of 25 years in prison.

Had the case proceeded to trial, Grant faced two counts of first-degree rape, two counts of attempted rape and one count of first-degree burglary. Under the state’s indeterminate sentencing laws, he could have spent the rest of his life in prison if convicted.

King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg said Wednesday that the plea deal brought an end to “the reign of violent intimidation and rape by a man of power and privilege, over women who had neither.”

“Danford Grant carefully chose these women to be the victims of his violent rape ambitions,” Satterberg said. “And today, their courage prevailed over a serial rapist who thought he had chosen his victims wisely.”

Satterberg said Grant chose victims who lived in the “margins” of society and who were less likely to report being the victim of a sexual assault. All of Grant’s victims were Asian and, in some cases, were in the country illegally and spoke little English.

“He knew that they would be terrified of standing up to a man like him,” Satterberg said. “And he also knew that many people would believe that these rapes were commercial transactions gone awry.”

Indeed, attorneys for Danford Grant had planned to mount a defense that would impeach the credibility of the victims and their profession, including video evidence that showed at least one of the women engaging in an act of prostitution during a massage.

“I don’t want to disparage the victims in this case, but these were not legitimate massage parlors for the most part,” defense attorney Richard Hansen told reporters outside the courtroom Wednesday.

When asked directly if his client still denied raping the women, Hansen admitted there “was a lack of consent.”

“He did not plead guilty to forcibly raping them,” Hansen said. “(The victims) didn’t want to do it and they said so, but they did it anyway. That is what he pleaded guilty to.”

Hansen said his client has suffered with a lifetime of addiction problems, including sexual addition.

“Dan Grant is a good person. This is very difficult for him and he’s got some problems that he’s dealing with in a very positive way now,” he said, calling it the hardest day of his client’s life.

Grant will remain on electronic home monitoring until his sentencing on May 19.