Community Police & Fire
Gig Harbor Police Blotter | Suspect charged in alleged rapes at massage spa
Pierce County prosecutors charged a 25-year-old Tacoma man with two counts of third-degree rape for crimes that allegedly occurred at a massage spa in Gig Harbor.
Prosecutors charged Justin Michael Francis on Jan. 13, according to documents filed in Superior Court. Francis pleaded not guilty and posted bail.
Two women told Gig Harbor police that Francis touched their genitals during massage session in December 2024 and May 2025. One of the women told police that she “no longer feels safe going to massages alone” due to trauma from the incident.
Francis no longer works at Serenity Spa, where the reported incidents occurred.
“Patient safety is our highest priority,” the business said in a statement to television station Q13. “When we became aware of an allegation involving a former employee, we immediately reported the matter to authorities and have fully cooperated with their investigation. The individual had already been separated from our business for unrelated reasons prior to any such allegation being brought to our attention.”
A condition attached to Francis’s release from custody bars him from practicing any physical therapy, though it permits him to teach massage therapy under supervision. It also requires him to comply with electronic home monitoring.
The judge tentatively schedule a trial to begin in March.
Two sentenced for 2023 shooting
Two men from South Kitsap County pleaded guilty to second-degree assault this month and will serve prison time for a 2023 shooting in Gig Harbor.
A Pierce County Superior Court judge sentenced the two men — Demondrae Lashaun Jones, 21, of Olalla; and and Rocco Anthony Fanara, 20, of Port Orchard — two four years in prison on Jan. 8. The sentence was part of a plea agreement between prosecutors and the defendants’ attorneys.
Jones and Fanara admitted to firing a gun at another vehicle on June 6, 2023, near the intersection of Hunt Street and 38th Avenue. Nobody was injured. Police found five bullet holes in the victims’ car and 18 spent shell casings in the area.
Prosecutors alleged that Fanara and Jones wanted revenge for the murder of their friend, Tyrone Sero. Sero was murdered in 2021 in Port Orchard. The victims in the 2023 shooting are related to one of the men convicted of killing Sero.
The 48-month sentences for Fanara and Jones include 12 months for assault plus 36-month firearms enhancements. Both will receive credit for time already served, more than a year for each.
Good dog. Bad driver
A large dog went flying through a windshield after a car it was in fled a traffic stop on the Key Peninsula on Jan. 6.
Miraculously, the dog sustained no injuries. Neither did the driver or a passenger in the vehicle.
According to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office, a deputy attempted to pull the car over around 12:45 a.m. because its tabs were expired by more than three years. The car tried to flee, but crashed into an embankment a few seconds later.
The impact sent a dog through the windshield, after which it ran away.
Deputies arrested the driver, a 39-year-old man, on suspicion of animal cruelty, eluding, driving under the influence, driving with a suspended license and possession of a controlled substance.
A 28-year-old woman, a passenger in the car, owns the dog that went through the windshield and another dog in the car. Deputies found no evidence that she committed a crime, so they released her to retrieve her dog.