Woman says after drinking in Denver with Dr. Stephen Matthews, she woke up naked, handcuffed and vomiting
The third week of testimony in the trial of Denver cardiologist Stephen Matthews began with graphic testimony from a woman who said after Matthews prepared her a shot of liquor at his home in 2019, she lost her memory but remembers snippets of what happened, including finding herself naked on his couch, with handcuffs on and throwing up.
"My memories are all over the place" the woman testified Monday morning, saying that after drinking a shot with Matthews, she only had three more memories.
"First memory I have," she said, "is sitting on the couch naked with handcuffs in front of me, vomiting."
Matthews is charged with meeting women on dating apps between 2019 and 2023, then drugging 11 of them while on dates and sexually assaulting 9 of them. Matthews has pleaded not guilty. The woman who testified Monday morning offered similar testimony to other alleged victims who said after Matthews prepared them a drink or a shot at his home, they lost memory but believed they were drugged and in some cases sexually assaulted.
The woman who spoke Monday said that she and Matthews went to a restaurant for their first date, where she had at least one, and possibly two bloody marys. She said she thought the date was going well and she and Matthews walked to his apartment, stopping to buy a bottle of liquor on the way.
Once at his apartment, she said she went to the bathroom but that Matthews prepared a shot of liquor for her while she was in the bathroom. After drinking it, she said her memory became fuzzy and she felt sluggish.
She said when she remembered being naked and in handcuffs, there was another woman in the apartment "yelling at him to unlock the handcuffs."
"I remember actively throwing up onto the floor," she said. "I have no idea how I got in them .. how my clothes came off," she recalled.
Under direct examination by a prosecutor, she said her next memory "is some type of some little brown vial being inserted into my vagina" by Matthews, who was also naked in the bedroom.
Her next memory, "was a bite on my right thigh.. This hard bite, I shot up in pain but nothing escapes my mouth," she said. "I remember that it hurt a lot ... the bruise lasted for probably two weeks."
She said Matthews had bitten her.
"I was in such a panicked state," she testified, and found her clothes strewn around Matthews living room. "I felt like I was in a fog or in a cloud. ... But I just knew I had to get home," she said.
While prosecutors theorize the woman was drugged, she said she initially "thought it was my fault" and thought she got too drunk on a date.
"I think I was just embarrassed," she recounted.
The following day, she texted Matthews as she said she wanted to explain, "This is not who I am. I wanted to apologize."
She agreed to a second date with Matthews hoping she said, to "Try to make up for it and prove to myself that nothing bad had happened."
On the second meeting, she went to Matthews home, had Chinese food and made banana bread. She said she wanted to "Show him that night was not who I am."
Following the first date, she contacted a nonprofit about getting an HIV test.
"I was very worried," she said.
