Judge revokes bond of former massage therapist accused of rape, sexual assault

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - A former massage therapist accused of sex crimes against women is once again in jail, as a judge in Tennessee revoked Tarek Mentouri’s bond on Wednesday.

As previously reported, Mentouri is facing multiple criminal charges in Tennessee for rape and sexual assault. While awaiting trial, he was allowed to move to metro Atlanta to care for his sick mother.

In the year that Mentouri has been living in Duluth, three local women have reported troubling behavior. The most recent accuses him of stalking her and messaging her on Facebook, a website a judge had previously banned him from using.

Inside a Tennessee courtroom on Wednesday, a Duluth woman testified via Zoom about why she took out an order of protection against Mentouri.

“I’m afraid of him,” she said. “Through this entire time, he has yet to say who he actually is.”

The woman lives in Mentouri’s Duluth apartment complex, and said he messaged her on Facebook, using a fake name.

“One day he messaged me on Facebook, and I saw somewhere, after I found out about his charges, that he wasn’t supposed to be on there,” the woman said.

Mentouri’s massage license was revoked by the state of Tennessee after a series of reports by sister station WSMV’s chief investigator Jeremy Finley, who talked with more than a dozen women who accused Mentouri of “sexual misconduct” including rape, sexual battery and kidnapping.

In Georgia, two more women told Atlanta News First Mentouri reached out to them online and offered to give free massages. But in those cases, he used Nextdoor and Freelancer.com, websites that he was not explicitly banned from.

This time, Mentouri is alleged to have used Facebook, and Jennifer Smith, a metropolitan Nashville & Davidson County trials court judge, said that was a direct violation of his bond conditions.

“The court will no longer take any additional chances with Mr. Mentouri while this case is pending,” Smith said.

After Mentouri’s bond was revoked, he was booked into a Nashville jail.

Atlanta News First shared the news with Dr. Diana Eidson, a metro Atlanta teacher who met Mentouri earlier this year.

“He’s been allowed to continue his behavior far longer than he should’ve been,” she said.

Eidson said Mentouri did not touch her but repeatedly offered her massages and never disclosed his criminal charges.

She’s glad a judge has taken action. “He needs to be held behind bars so that he can’t do this anymore,” Eidson said. “He’s not been rehabilitated, and he needs to be.”

Mentouri will face 19 criminal counts of sex crimes in an upcoming trial in Tennessee.

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