Local massage therapist gets two years for sexually battering clients at Wichita spa

A local massage therapist will serve two years in jail for sexually touching clients at an east Wichita spa last year.

Zachary Sample, 33, of Belle Plaine, pleaded no contest as charged to four counts of misdemeanor sexual battery and was immediately sentenced Monday, Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office spokesman Dan Dillon said.

Sample “agreed to a two-year jail sentence. Judge Tyler Roush followed the recommendation,” Dillon said.

Wichita police arrested Sample on a warrant in August 2022 after multiple women reported Sample groping their breasts and genitals during their May appointments at the clinic.

In at least one instance, Sample played off the touching as a massage technique targeting a specific muscle group to relieve the client’s chronic headaches, according to an affidavit released by the court. He offered home massage appointments to others and made comments about getting “a little carried away” and giving “the best chest massage,” the affidavit says.

The women, in their twenties and thirties, told authorities Sample made them feel uncomfortable, unsafe, traumatized and scared. Some were repeat clients but told police they had no problems with Sample before, the affidavit says.

The spa fired him not long after one of the reports, according to the affidavit.

Sample was booked into the Sedgwick County Jail to start serving the two-year sentence Monday, jail records show.