A worker at a Pilsen neighborhood spa is accused of sexually abusing a customer last month.
Taras Zholdak, 50, inappropriately touched a woman while she was receiving a massage on Jan. 15 at Chocolate For Your Body at 1743 S. Halsted St., according to prosecutors.
The woman quickly left the room, prosecutors said in court Friday. Zholdak was arrested Wednesday and charged with criminal sexual abuse.
Judge Kelly McCarthy ordered Zholdak released from custody while awaiting trial on the condition that he not engage in any massage therapy work while the charge is pending. Prosecutors said he does not have a license to perform massages, p rosecutors said.
Chocolate For Your Body describes itself as a full-service spa that also offers haircuts, manicures and waxing among services listed on its website.
A public defender for Zholdak said he was trained as a massage therapist in Ukraine and only recently came to the United States as a refugee. The defense attorney noted it was Zholdak’s first arrest, and he denies abusing the woman.
Chocolate For Your Body owner Laura Wilczynska said the customer brought the incident to the attention of the owners, and Zholdak’s employment was terminated.
Wilczynska said she and her business partner wanted to help Zholdak because they are sympathetic to the Ukrainian people who have been displaced by the war with Russia. She said he told them he was just waiting to receive his paperwork for a state license for massage therapy.
“We just wanted to help,” she said. “We feel so bad.”
