A Minneapolis yoga studio has been at
the center of a social media firestorm
after a former studio owner and teacher
was charged with child sexual assault.
In Canada, 48 year old Philip Doucet is
charged with two counts of sexual assault,
one count of sexual exploitation
and one count of sexual interference
with a girl under the age of 16,
according to Ottawa police.
The alleged crimes took place
between 1998 and 2001,
while Philip Doucet worked at
a youth leadership camp there.
Now Phil Doucet's exwife,
who coowned Moto Yoga's Minneapolis studio
with him at the time of the charges,
says she was shocked by his alleged
crimes and immediately took steps
to remove Phillip from the business.
But a group of his former yoga
students and employees say they
aren't surprised by these charges,
and they have started a social
media campaign sharing allegations
of misconduct from his time at
the studio in Minneapolis.
Kent talked to two of those former employees,
and he talked to that former coowner.
Kent, What about Philip Doucet though?
Well,
Jenna, We went to his home in Minneapolis
and reached out to his attorney in
Canada and simply received a no comment.
But his exwife and the current
owner of the Minneapolis studio
talked to me to share her response,
the action she has taken,
and the allegations being made online.
Thank you. Phil Doucet was a
selfdescribed professional speaker,
author, leadership coach and Yogi in
Canada before moving to Minneapolis to
open a Moto yoga studio 12 years ago.
And the woman who made that move
with him says nothing could prepare
her for the charges he now faces,
which go back even further.
I mean, absolute shock. What?
You know, just like my
body vibrating in shock.
You know, this is a person I've known
for a very, very, very long time and
and this happened in advance
of my knowing him and I wasn't
aware of it, I was in shock.
Ryan Jessamine shares a daughter
with Phil Doucette and while they
ended their marriage just a year
after moving to Minneapolis,
they remained business partners and Co
owners of the studio until last month.
Have you had any contact with him
since these charges were filed?
I've had some minimal contact, yeah.
Did he offer any kind of
explanation or anything,
or can you talk about any of that?
I haven't asked him about any of that.
I cannot be responsible for my
business partner's actions in
the time before I knew him.
What I am responsible for is the
Moto Yoga Minneapolis community.
So I kept my lens on protecting my children.
And making sure that he was
removed from the Minneapolis
studio in the expedited way.
According to Ottawa police,
Phil Doucet was charged back on May 23rd.
But in a statement,
the CEO of Moto Yoga International,
which overseas more than 50 studios,
says they learned of these charges on
June 5th and Phil Doucet was immediately
removed as owner of the studio.
When did you find out?
I was made aware the last day of May.
And at that point, I immediately
removed Phil from the studio
premises and worked very expedited
to remove him from all ownership.
And I removed him from
classes immediately as well.
But his word of the criminal
charges became more widely known.
Public criticism began to build
on social media about how those
changes were communicated.
I told people he was on a mental
health break, and you can imagine
he was absolutely on a mental
health break at that time once I
was able to purchase his shares.
And share more than I shared
that as immediately as I could.
But if he's charged with sexual
assault and you're not relaying
that piece of it, do you understand
why people would be concerned?
I don't think that was my responsibility.
And it's been very made very clear to me
that my responsibility was to remove him
from the business as quickly as possible.
Made clear by who?
By my therapist, By my lawyer.
In my heart, knowing he needed
to be removed immediately.
In the weeks since his removal,
backlash has only grown louder online,
with several students and employees
cutting ties with the studio and
many sharing posts accusing Doucette
of inappropriate behavior and some
alleging that he groomed them while he
was teaching at Moto in Minneapolis.
He just really used his his place in our
community and his power to manipulate.
These women, when they were vulnerable,
Callie Nabla, a former Moto
yoga student and instructor,
along with Callie Prairie,
a former manager,
say they heard multiple stories of
inappropriate conduct involving
Doucette while working at the studio,
and both say they left in 2021
after trying to take action.
I think I feel guilty because both
Callie and I tried to help a victim.
You know the victim didn't
want to go to the police,
didn't want to go further than
just within the the community,
but then nothing was resolved.
They did put Phil on leave.
It was paid leave and I know it was
paid leave because I was paying him.
I was doing payroll so he didn't teach
in the studio for about 6 to 8 weeks.
We were told we had to tell everyone
he was on a mental health break.
He was struggling because of the pandemic.
That
was an HR issue that was being investigated
and it was not investigated by me.
It was investigated by an arm's length
third party who said it is clear
for Phil to return to that schedule.
What did you tell customers who were asking
about Phil's whereabouts at that time?
I had told them that he was on
a mental health break and that
would be a breach to say otherwise
to something being investigated.
When I did report this to Ryan,
she told me that Phil had a
history of using his power to
manipulate yoga students and that
he was going to go to therapy and
if she felt like she needed to,
she would buy him out of the business.
At that time, do
you remember having any conversations
in which you acknowledged that he?
Would use his influence
inappropriately with other women.
I don't. Both
Ryan and the Moto Yoga CEO have asked
anyone who has experienced or witnessed
any form of misconduct at any Moto
Yoga studio to reach out directly
or anonymously through the website.
I have not tuned into any social media.
Based on the advice of my therapist.
But I do understand that it's very much
a witch hunt that's directed at me.
While I don't know the details of that,
I would would ask again that anyone
talking on social media go to a
proper channel where that information
can be heard and processed and
addressed in a meaningful way,
as opposed to an online witch hunt.
Do you understand why
people would be hesitant?
I mean, even in this interview you're
telling me that this is a witch hunt.
So if anyone's coming forward right
now with allegations that are true,
why would they feel comfortable going
to a company or a studio where you're
describing this as a witch hunt?
I'm not sure if you've read the
online comments. I have not.
And that's how they have been
described to me by many members.
I've read them. You apparently
haven't, so you're the one
describing it as a witch hunt.
Because it's been explained to me by
members of our community as that. Do
you feel good about Phil's conduct within
the Moto yoga community while he was there?
Absolutely. He was everybody's favorite
teacher, everybody's favorite teacher,
and I can't comment further than that.
At the time of that interview just a
few days ago, Ryan Jessamine was still
teaching at the Minneapolis studio.
But this afternoon she informed me
that she has handed over leadership
to a new studio director and that she
is now far from Minnesota for good,
she said in a statement.
She also said my energy is with
my family now.
I do not have any additional capacity.
This community needs a leader with space,
strength, empathy and the tools
to move through this. Canada.
We do not know at this point
whether or not she remains owner.
I asked her that.
She did not respond.
We know about the charges in Canada, Kent,
that we talked about in the beginning.
Is there any criminal investigation
at this point happening here because
of these social media posts?
Not that we know of,
at least at this point.
And to be clear, unlike in Canada,
the kind of allegations stemming from
the studio do not involve minors.
However, investigators in Ottawa
did say that they believe there
could be other victims dating
back to do sets time at that camp,
which lasted from 1996 to 2005,
and they're encouraging anyone
with knowledge of that or
experiences there to come forward.
Yeah, there's just so much Gray area this,
and you and I've talked
about this for several days.
I know you and I both contacted
Canadian authorities and they just
keep reiterating if something happened
here or a woman alleges that it
did go to your local authorities,
if something happened to you in
Canada, come to us.
That's right. And again,
we don't know of any
investigations going on here.
But again, they said if there is
anything that anyone does have that
might arise to that criminal level,
they encourage them to reach
out to their local authorities.
All right. Thanks so much, Kent.