Colorado cardiologist accused in sexual assault case named by 9 more women he met on Hinge dating app

A Colorado cardiologist accused of drugging and assaulting a woman he met on a dating app earlier this year has now been connected to multiple other alleged druggings and assaults.

Dr. Stephen Matthews, 35, was charged in March with sexual assault after a woman he met in January on a dating app, Hinge, filed a police report, NBC affiliate KUSA of Denver reported at the time. Since then, nine additional women have come forward with accusations against Matthews, the Denver District Attorney’s Office said Tuesday.

Prosecutors have filed nine sexual assault charges and seven second-degree assault against Matthews.

The first woman who came forward, who was not named, said she went on a date for breakfast and mimosas with Matthews on Jan. 29, according to the arrest warrant released Tuesday. Matthews allegedly invited the woman back to his home, where they played a game of Jenga and got into a hot tub.

She told investigators that she began to feel unwell after Matthews made her a drink, according to the warrant.

“Her next memory is being at her own home and talking to paramedics,” the warrant said. “She had no memory from about noon until about 9:40 p.m. She had no idea how she got home.”

The woman learned she had taken a car home at 3:40 p.m. and made calls to her sister and a friend, who both went to her home to check on her along with her mother, the warrant said. Her sister found her in the shower in her underwear and acting erratically, and called for help.

She had a sexual assault examination the next morning and spoke to the Denver Police Sex Crimes Unit to file a report the following week, the warrant said.

Matthews told investigators in February that the sex between them was consensual but she got ill after the fact and got a car home, the warrant said.

Less than a week after Matthews’ arrest in March, investigators received a call from a woman who said she met Matthews on Hinge in January, and met him at a bar, the warrant said. She said the pair returned to Matthews’ home after she had one drink at the bar and that she felt “off balance” after he made her a tequila soda.

According to the warrant, she told authorities that she remembers kissing him and “blacked out,” with little memory of the rest of the night.

“She took an Uber to get home and got violently ill,” the warrant said. “She reported that she believes that Dr. Matthews sexually assaulted her but has no memory of it.”

Another woman who said she met Matthews in October 2019 alleges that he invited her to his home after brunch to use his hot tub. She told police that after Matthews made her a drink, “things became very blurry” but remembered vomiting in his bathroom.

“She next remembers being in her apartment with him, but not how they got there,” the warrant said. “She went to bed and woke up to Dr. Matthews having sex with her.”

Matthews sent photos of her naked in the hot tub after she told him she would not see him again weeks later, the warrant said.

Of the women who spoke to Denver police all but one say they met Matthews on dating apps, either Hinge or Tinder, between October 2019 and February 2023.

Some women said they played Jenga with Matthews or went into his hot tub, but said they felt ill after he made or bought them a drink, according to the warrant. One woman declined a drink from Matthews at his home and left after being uncomfortable with him getting “touchy” with her.

“She said that she subsequently realized that he was the same person who had sexually assaulted her friend… about three years ago,” the warrant said.

The only woman who didn’t meet Matthews on a dating app, according to the warrant, had gone to his home to a get a key to housesit for him.

They went to a restaurant together, where she believes he bought her a drink and she began to feel sick. She called her roommate for a ride home and was not sexually assaulted but she believes Matthews drugged her, the warrant said.

In a statement to NBC News Thursday, Matthews’ attorney Douglas Cohen said that accusations are not evidence.

“Like all of us in our great nation, my client is presumed innocent,” Cohen said. “We must be careful in every case not to treat that phrase as a tired cliche or catchy book title. It is the bedrock of our system of justice that holds sacred liberty for all.”

Matthews has a hearing scheduled next week and inmate records show he was booked into a Denver detention center on Monday, with “no bond allowed.” NBC News was unable to reach the facility by phone Thursday and Cohen declined to comment on whether his client was in custody.

Matthews previously had privileges at a Centura Health hospital but was an independent provider. He no longer has access to the medical system’s patients or facilities, Centura Health said in a statement.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

Source link

Leave a Comment