A Lewis County Superior Court judge has sentenced Michael Frietze, a massage therapist arrested in June for sexually assaulting female massage clients in Chehalis between 2021 and 2023, to a minimum of about 14 years in prison.
In a guilty plea dated Sept. 1, Frietze, 46, of Chehalis, admitted to sexually assaulting three separate female patients: one on or about June 23, 2023; one on or about April 11, 2023; and one between May and June of 2022.
He pleaded guilty to one count of indecent liberties without forcible compulsion stemming from the June 2023 incident; one count of second-degree rape without forcible compulsion stemming from the April 2023 incident, and one count of second-degree rape without forcible compulsion stemming from the 2022 incident.
On Monday, Judge James Lawler sentenced Frietze to 75 months in prison on the indecent liberties charge and 170 months to life, meaning he can only apply for release after the initial 170 months are up, on the rape charges. The two sentences are set to run concurrently. He will receive credit for time served since his June 27 arrest.
As part of his conviction, Frietze will remain on probation for the rest of his life if released and is required to register as a sex offender upon his release.
The sentencing follows the agreement laid out in Frietze’s guilty plea, where prosecuting attorneys stated they planned to recommend a sentence of a total of 170 months in prison followed by a lifetime in community custody, in addition to sexual assault protection orders in favor of Frietze’s victims from both charged and uncharged offenses, and a requirement for Frietze to register as a sex offender.
The sentencing judge was not required to follow the prosecuting attorney’s recommendation but is generally limited by state law to the standard sentencing range, which in Frietze’s case was 57 to 75 months for the indecent liberties charge and 146 to 194 months to life for the rape charges.
As part of the guilty plea, three counts of indecent liberties without forcible compulsion, stemming from three separate incidents between June 2022 and June 2023 involving three separate female victims, have been dismissed.
The plea also counts as a “global resolution” to the case and by agreeing to accept the plea, “the state agrees they shall not and will not prosecute the defendant for any crimes committed prior to the date of sentencing that were committed during the course of medical treatment, to include massage/massage therapy, he performed on any victims presently known or unknown,” according to court documents.
The clause includes an exception for crimes involving “forcible compulsion” or crimes “where the victim was under the age of 18 at the time of the offense.”
The Chehalis Police Department opened an investigation into Frietze after a victim reported a possible assault at a business in the 2500 block of Northwest Kresky Avenue at 10:52 a.m. on June 23.
The victim told law enforcement she had received multiple massages from Frietze in the past without incident, but alleged that during a scheduled massage on June 23, Frietze reached beneath the sheet multiple times and touched her inappropriately. The victim “stopped the massage by telling (Frietze) the massage needed to be done, and left,” according to an affidavit of probable cause filed in Lewis County Superior Court on Wednesday, June 28.
Between that first report on June 23 and when detectives referred the case to local prosecutors on June 27, a total of six victims came forward to report incidents of sexual abuse by Frietze, according to the affidavit.
A Lewis County Superior Court judge approved sexual assault protection orders for 17 separate victims when Frietze entered his guilty plea on Sept. 1. Those orders do not expire.
