EVANSTON - An Evanston massage therapist will serve a year in jail after pleading guilty to one count of second-degree sexual assault and two counts of fourth-degree sexual assault for crimes committed while giving massages.

Massage therapist David Enns reached a plea agreement with authorities after being initially charged with three counts of second-degree sexual assault.

He was sentenced to five years probation for the first charge and one year in the county jail for each of the other two charges, to run concurrently. Enns was treated as a first-time offender, although he had lost his license in Utah for similar complaints.

All three women complained that during the course of a massage, Enns penetrated them digitally.

District Judge Dennis Sanderson said Wyoming lacks regulations governing massage therapists and so may attract troubled practitioners.

It is a troubling thing, Sanderson said, "if we are a haven for people who abuse their position as a massage therapist; if we're a haven for people that flock here to go into that type of business because there's no regulation of it, this is a sobering - a sobering - thing."

It took two of the victims about seven years before they came forward to report the crime. The most recently reported victim said she was sexually assaulted in Sept. 2001 by Enns when he worked out of a local beauty salon.

"He had a certificate on the wall," she said in an interview last week. "I assumed everything was OK."

Upset by the ordeal, she didn't tell anyone for six months, not even her husband. It was only when her little sister, an athlete, was home from college and planned to go to Enns for a massage, that she knew she would have to say something.

"Even though it was really hard, he's not going to do that to someone else," she vowed. "I would sure hate for someone to have to go through the emotions I did. I think if you had a license, this type of thing would be prevented."

Another victim said in an interview, "The reason why I went to (Enns) was because I was under the impression he went to some sort of schooling. I wouldn't have gone if (I knew) he didn't have a license."

A third victim had hurt her back working as a certified nursing assistant. When she went to Enns to get some massage therapy, she saw his certificate on the wall and thought he was licensed. That was one of the things she looked at, she said. She didn't know the license had been revoked in Utah.

She stated that Enns manipulated the situation, "each time getting closer to private parts" before engaging in digital penetration.

"I did nothing wrong," she said. "It took me a long time to find that out. I've been through hell."

Second-degree sexual assault is defined as sexual intrusion if the actor is in a position of authority over the victim and uses this position of authority to cause the victim to submit, or the actor inflicts sexual intrusion in treatment or examination of a victim for purposes or in a manner substantially inconsistent with reasonable medical practices.

In police reports, the three victims described how Enns had sexually assaulted them. Yet when the case came before Sanderson for the plea bargain, and the police statements were accepted into the court record, Enns still made it sound as if it were the women's fault that he had sexually assaulted them.

However, in order for the plea bargain to be accepted, Enns needed to admit his guilt.

"Quite frankly, the defendant is trying to make it sound more like he had every right to do this as opposed to just trying to establish a factual basis," Sanderson said. "And you'd just as well know it's time to own up to things and I don't care what they were wearing, quite frankly."

Enns said, "I made gestures of sexual gratification."

"That doesn't cut it," the judge responded. "I don't care about gestures. Did you make contact?"

"I made contact," Enns finally admitted and Sanderson accepted that answer.

While the victims accepted the plea bargain agreement, they remained unhappy about Wyoming law. A couple of the victims approached Rep. Saundra Meyer (D-Evanston) about drafting a bill to require massage therapists to be licensed in Wyoming.

It seemed wrong, the most recent victim said, that you have to be licensed to do someone's fingernails, "but you don't to have someone touch your body, work on your body."

Meyer sponsored HB68, which was based on another state's bill for licensing massage therapists. She later received more information from the Wyoming Chapter of National Massage Therapy Association. Meyer decided that because of mixed reviews on the bill, she would need to do more research on it and introduce it at the next session of the legislature. She said that some massage therapists didn't like the bill as it was because of the amount of required continuing education to keep a license.

She also wants to consider a "grandfather clause" that would take into account prior experience or education.

"I think it's a good bill that needs to be brought next session," Meyer said. "It brings massage therapy to a higher standard. It protects people, because massage therapy, if not done appropriately, can be harmful."

Enns' five years of probation will begin after he completes his one-year prison sentence. The terms of his probation prohibit him from working as a massage therapist or viewing pornography and require he work or seek employment and obtain therapy, among other things.

If Enns violates any of the terms of his probation, the county may ask the court to revoke his probation and he could face up to 20 years in prison.

Uinta County Attorney Mike Greer had asked Judge Sanderson for meaningful punishment for Enns and strenuously opposed a work release request for Enns, who has a wife and six children.

Sanderson agreed with Greer, saying he thought Enns would benefit from a year spent thinking about how his family is doing.

Although the victims agreed to the plea bargain, they had mixed feelings about it.

"I guess I'm satisfied to know he's off the streets," the second victim said. "I'm glad we got him in jail for the women who came forward …."

"He could have gotten 60 years - that seems more fair for all he put us through," another victim said. "I don't want people to feel we quit; because of all the appeals, it would have taken a lot of time (if we had gone to trial)."