BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com

A plea agreement has been reached in First Judicial District Court for Gregory Barthell, 59, of Los Alamos who was arrested in September 2018 and charged with criminal sexual contact with a male client at Barthell’s massage business.

The criminal complaint in the case alleges that Barthell “unlawfully and intentionally touched or applied force without consent to the unclothed intimate parts of the male client by the use of force or coercion which resulted in personal injury”.

According to the statement of probable cause filed by Lyon, the incident allegedly occurred when the male visited Barthell’s place of business Sept. 27 for a massage.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, Barthell pleaded guilty to solicitation of a criminal sex act and was given an 18 months suspended sentence and placed on supervised probation for 364 days. He was also order to complete 8 hours of community service. Barthell originally faced a maximum of 18 months of incarceration and a $5,000 fine.