Boyle

SISTERS — A spa owner in Sisters faces fresh allegations of sexual abuse after the Deschutes County District Attorney declined to charge him in July due to insufficient evidence.

Now Michael Boyle, 60, owner of Hop in the Spa in Sisters, finds himself back in hot water after 10 more women came forward alleging abuse and a grand jury indicted him on multiple charges.

The grand jury on Tuesday, Sept. 7, handed down an indictment against Boyle for the following, according to a press release from the district attorney’s office: 13 counts of practicing massage without a license; two counts of first-degree sexual abuse; third-degree sexual abuse; and one count of fourth-degree assault.

The first court appearance for Boyle, 60, is scheduled for Sept. 23. A judge at that time will inform him of the charges against him. Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel said the abuse relates to touching “sexually intimate parts of the body” while giving massages.

The first case was dismissed because Hummel said an investigation determined Boyle had “skirted the line” but not committed a crime. Hummel said it’s not uncommon for multiple women to come forward after one person alleges abuse.

“People think that something that happened to them was inappropriate,” Hummel said, “but they think it just happened to them and they don’t want to be the sole person to come forward because then all the focus is on them and they are rightfully reluctant to take on that all alone.”

Hummel said when multiple women come forward, it gives others the courage to do the same.