Arlington woman who was allegedly sexually abused by a massage therapist tells her story

She froze as the masseur began to sexually assault her. At first she couldn’t process what was happening. Then she was unable to move, let alone defend herself against him.

“It was like my body was so heavy or like I had left it. I don’t even know how to explain it,” the 52-year-old woman from Arlington said via Zoom while her sister sat next to her on a couch.

He kept saying, “I’m so sorry,” she remembers, as his attacks escalated. At one point, she says, he held up his phone to show her these words in English: “Don’t tell anyone.”

It was only when he tried to kiss her, the breath of his cigarette in her face, that she came to life again, told him to stop, and left as fast as she could. She drove straight to the nearest police station, shaking all over as she told them what he had done to her.

She soon learned that the massage therapist arrested for her rape had been arrested two years earlier for assaulting another person under similar circumstances. In April 2022, Yao Zhang was charged in Norwood with multiple counts of sexual assault and battery on a woman. Because he had no prior convictions at the time and had appeared in court as required, Zhang was released without bail, as required by case law. He was ordered to surrender his passport, stay away from the victim, and stop working as a massage therapist until his trial.

The first case – in Dedham District Court, where proceedings theoretically move relatively quickly – dragged on for two years because of defense requests for adjournments and a change of attorney, a spokesman for the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office said. That allowed Zhang to work at the Arlington salon, even though it violated his release conditions.

“I was let down, and the other victim was let down,” the Arlington woman said.

The Middlesex District Attorney initially charged Zhang with rape, but later downgraded the charge to sexual assault and battery. A prosecutor unsuccessfully requested that he be held in custody pending trial. He was sentenced to three months in prison. Zhang’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment.

Sexual assault and battery carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison or up to two and a half years in county detention. The latter would be a truly pathetic punishment for what Zhang allegedly did to this woman, who is plagued by nightmares, afraid to go to most places she used to go, and who moved out of her first-floor apartment because she no longer felt safe there.

“He (could) only get two years, and I have to spend my whole life with it,” she said.

Rape convictions carry heavier penalties, but since we’re still living in the past when it comes to proving this crime, prosecutors often opt for lesser charges that are easier to enforce. Juries can have a hard time finding someone guilty of rape if a victim doesn’t fight back as people still think she should.

The victim’s sister has been at her side at every hearing since April. Both are worldly and educated, but they are shocked and angry about what happened here.

“You hear about these high-profile cases, but I assumed that most rapists get arrested,” said the victim’s sister. “Does anyone go to jail? That’s crazy.”

Zhang is currently in custody, but not for the alleged attacks. After he posted $10,000 bail on July 5, immigration officials arrested the Chinese national – who is undocumented – and are holding him pending his deportation hearing. In the past, defendants have sometimes been deported before they can face trial and be held accountable for their crimes. That’s less likely in Zhang’s case, but not impossible.

If it does happen, it would be just the latest in a long, outrageous line of failures that have led the woman to this terrible moment. Sometimes justice delayed is justice denied. And sometimes it is something far worse.

Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham can be reached at [email protected].