The Woodburn Spa, seen on July 11, , is at the center of a police investigation that included two local elected officials. The mayor and a school board member in Woodburn walked into a local massage parlor last winter and left having experienced more than massages. Woodburn Mayor Eric Swenson, who until last month was the Democratic nominee in a competitive Senate race, told a detective his massage experience was similar to that of Anthony Medina, a school board colleague and the Democratic nominee for a state House District.
The case is now closed, though the spa remains open. As part of the investigation, they told police they went to the Woodburn Spa expecting normal massages and left, uncomfortable, after the massages turned sexual. He said he was worried that the woman who touched him was a victim of human trafficking, and that was part of why he wanted to report the incident. Swenson, meanwhile, told nobody what had happened for weeks, records show. He only contacted police after he learned that Medina had reported inappropriate conduct.
Normally, the Capital Chronicle normally does not name sexual abuse or assault victims. As such, the Capital Chronicle believes it is important to name them and report on their involvement in the case. Their accounts were included in a set of police videos and reports released to the Capital Chronicle late Thursday afternoon in response to a public records request.
The Capital Chronicle published an earlier story about the investigation in which Swenson acknowledged he had been interviewed by police. The Woodburn Spa, off Highway 99 on the northeast side of Woodburn, is in a squat white building with a red roof and a design that suggests it once had a drive-thru window. The spa only accepts cash. In a statement to the Capital Chronicle, he said he chose the Woodburn Spa because it had recently opened near his home.
There are more than a dozen massage parlors in the city. From the start, his experience was different from the roughly massages he had received over the last several years, Medina told police. The table was more like a bed, without armrests, and the masseuse gave him a bath towel, not a sheet, to cover himself.
