As trial of lawyer looms in massage-parlor rape case, judge allows state to add two new charges
A Washington state lawyer already charged with multiple felonies in a serial rape case is now facing two additional charges of attempted rape, for a total of nine felony charges involving five women as claimed victims.
Danford Grant, 49, says he is innocent, contending that any sex was paid for and consensual. He has filed a motion to dismiss the case, arguing that police didn’t obtain and secure a secret security video from one of the Seattle area massage parlors where the alleged rapes occurred and that the video could have exonerated him, according to KIRO, the Seattle PI and the Seattle Times.
Another motion seeks to suppress evidence from his home, office, car and computer, arguing that search warrants lacked an adequate basis.
The two women he is accused of attempting to rape in 2011 in the latest counts were actually raped by Grant in 2012, the government alleges.
All of the claimed victims are Asian and Grant is portrayed by the prosecution as an individual “obsessed with Asian women” who targeted immigrant masseuses, the Seattle PI reports. He is accused of pulling a knife during two of the alleged rapes.
In the state’s response to Grant’s motion to dismiss, prosecutors allege that he searched online for Asian massage therapists and “rape scenes,” the Seattle Times says.
A judge agreed earlier this month to allow the state to amend its case against Grant to include the new charges, which concern alleged conduct by Grant that was described in 2013 search warrant affidavits. He was also charged with burglary in the original case against him.
A father of three, Grant at the time of his arrest was a partner in a Seattle law firm he founded. Following his release on $1 million bail, reduced from the $3 million set earlier, he has been on home confinement since 2012.
A trial is scheduled next month in the King County case.
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Police Seize Electronic Tracking Equipment from Seattle Lawyer Accused of Multiple Rapes”
KIRO: “Rape suspect’s wife working as judge in Seattle”
KIRO: “Rape suspect attorney may question his law partner on stand”
Seattle Times: “Attorney says video that would have cleared him in rapes erased”
