Filbin
CHARLESTON - Another former client of a Kanawha County massage therapist who was arrested for videotaping his clients undressing and dressing has filed a lawsuit against him.
Attorney Marvin W. Masters filed the suit July 25 in Kanawha Circuit Court on behalf of a Kanawha County woman known only as Mary Jane Doe.
The suit is against Richard "Rico" Filbin, the owner of Body and Soul Massage Therapy. Filbin was arrested May 31 and charged with 114 counts of criminal invasion of privacy. He is charged with secretly videotaping as many as 65 women, some under the age of 18.
According to the suit, Mary Jane Doe claims she was a client of Filbin in 2001, and claims she was "secretly videotaped ... as she was disrobed and alone."
She says she never gave written or verbal permission to Filbin to have him videotape her, and she claims she had an expectancy of total privacy once she disrobed.
According to the suit, the plaintiff became aware she had been videotaped when she learned Filbin had been arrested. She claims she suffered severe emotional and physical distress, embarrassment and humiliation, invasion of privacy and psychological injury.
In the three-count suit, Mary Jane Doe seeks compensatory and punitive damages, a trial by jury and costs.
A class action lawsuit was filed June 6 by attorney John H. Tinney Jr. Two other women were named in that suit, at the time.
Filbin's massage license has been suspended by the West Virginia Massage Therapy Licensure Board and will remain suspended until a hearing.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 07-C-1534