A Mount Shasta City Innkeeper has decided to plead no contest to multiple counts of sexual assault committed against his guests. 75-year-old David Roy Knowles Sr. was the longtime host of the Mount Inn Retreat and Spa on Birch Street. A woman reported a sexual assault in May of 2021 and Knowles was arrested two days later. The Siskiyou County District Attorney’s Office got the case, but then returned it to Mount Shasta Police, making it necessary to release Knowles from custody. Officers then returned to the Mount Inn with a search warrant and seized a computer, business records, a cell phone and other evidence. During the two week period following the initial arrest, 6 more women came forward and said that they, too, had been sexually assaulted by Knowles while they received massages. Using the records obtained during the search, the DA’s Office contacted previous guests to tell them about the case. That prompted even more women to come forward, for a total of 12 victims ranging in age from 26 to 69. Three others reported being assaulted as far back as 2005, but the statute of limitations has passed for those violations. Knowles was never licensed through the California Massage Therapy Council, the regulatory agency for massage therapists. On Tuesday Knowles pleaded no contest to 14 counts of sexual assault. He’ll be sentenced in December to six years in state prison.