Illinois law to immediately revoke massage licenses if convicted of sex offenses goes to Pritzker's desk
Legislation protecting Illinois customers receiving professional massages from sexual assaults and harassment is now on its way to Gov. JB Pritzker for his signature.
CBS News Chicago Investigators has been reporting this issue since 2022, including on state loopholes that have left customers vulnerable to sexual assaults and abuse at the hands of licensed massage therapists, and highlighted efforts to put more protections in place in the industry.
House Bill 5387, which includes amendments to the Massage Therapy Practice Act, makes it easier for the state to immediately pull the license of any massage therapist convicted of certain crimes. In the past, it has taken months to get licenses revoked.
Under the bill, massage therapists convicted of crimes including prostitution, rape, sexual misconduct, involuntary sexual servitude of a minor, battery of a patient, and any crime that subjects the a licensee to comply with the Sexual Offender Registration Act will have their massage therapy license revoked immediately.
"It will be an automatic revocation of their license. There would not be any more postponing, waiting around for an independent investigation," said State Rep. Tom Weber (R-Lake Villa).
CBS News Chicago Investigators previously reported on cases in which victims who have sued massage chains and massage therapists for sexual battery and assault have been let down by loopholes in Illinois law that let the therapists keep their licenses.
"After everything I've gone through – I have gone through 14 hearings, hours of interviews, two years of my life – and this man who's been convicted of a sex crime is still a licensed massage therapist in the state of Illinois?" Christine Schirtzinger told us in 2022 after she filed a lawsuit against Massage Envy for her own sexual battery.
James "Rob" Garret pled guilty to reduced charges of attempted criminal sexual abuse in her case. He had to register as a sex offender and agree to stop working as a massage therapist, but he technically held his license and was in public good standing in Illinois for more than seven months.
State Rep. Weber is a co-sponsor of the bill now on Gov. Pritzker's desk, and he saw that original reporting from CBS News Chicago Investigators on Schirtzinger's case.
"The fact that Illinois would not take his license away immediately was shocking," he said.
Weber has made multiple legislative efforts on this issue, following what the reporting by CBS News Chicago Investigators exposed.
"Your passion is what drew me to it. Bring notified, talking with you, hearing about the other cases you've reported on," he said. "Every time we see something it becomes more and more shocking, and we ask ourselves why. It doesn't have to be this way."
Weber said there's still more work to do, like ensuring the state's licensing office had all records of felony convictions, allowing victims to report incidents to the state directly and requiring a worker, like a state licensed massage therapist, to undergo the same checks and reviews other health care workers would.
"Hopefully, like this, I'll say it enough that people will start to listen," he said.
But he also said today he's happy, after years of work, to have addressed this issue to keep people in a vulnerable position safer.
"I think everyone would agree they want to feel safe and they want to feel they haven't anything to worry about," Weber said.
The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation will be the department to revoke these licenses under the new amended law. A spokesperson for the department told CBS News Chicago Investigators they believe the new law will better ensure safety.
Full Statement from IDFPR
House Bill 5387 is annual legislation from the Department extending the sunset provisions of licensing Acts scheduled to sunset on January 1, 2027. Many of the Acts the Department administers have sunset provisions, which provide opportunities for the Department to work closely with our licensed professions and industries to make technical changes and language modernizations.
In anticipation of the bill sunsetting, the Department worked with the American Massage Therapy Association on new language in Section 45 of the Massage Therapy Practice Act. The Department believes it is a crucial step in better ensuring the safety of those seeking the services of licensed massage therapists.
The Department would like to thank the sponsors, Senator Suzy Glowiak Hilton and Representative Bob Morgan, and Representative Tom Weber, for their partnership and advocacy.
