A Denver cardiologist charged in March with drugging and raping a woman he met on a dating app was arrested again this week after nine additional victims came forward with similar stories.
Stephen Matthews, 35, was arrested outside a courtroom on Monday as he prepared for a preliminary hearing on the initial case, KCNC reported.
The Denver District Attorney’s Office dismissed the original complaint against Matthews and filed a new complaint alleging 16 felony counts involving 10 victims.
Three of those cases, including the original victim, allege that Matthews drugged and subsequently raped the “helpless” victim. The remaining seven cases allege that Matthews drugged the victims.
Matthews appeared in court Tuesday and was ordered held without bond. A judge also barred investigators from looking at his phone, which was seized Monday, because it may contain privileged communications between him and his attorney.
“There’s a multitude of issues,” said Magistrate Arnie Beckman.
Stephen Matthews Arrest War… by CBS News Colorado
Matthews’s attorney, Douglas Cohen, said his client is innocent.
“He’s alleged to do things,” he said on Monday. “Many people are alleged to do things — I’ll leave it at that.”
Court documents unsealed after Matthews’s arrest indicate that all 10 women met Matthews on a dating app and agreed to meet in person. The case of the original victim took place in January, while the other incidents took place between October 2019 and February 2023. Several of the women reported hours-long gaps in their memories of the time they spent with Matthews.
The nine additional women all contacted police after Matthews’s initial arrest, with most coming after April 18, when Denver Police asked anyone with interactions with him to come forward. They met for breakfast, to walk their dogs, or to go on a hike, and Matthews asked them back to his apartment to play Jenga or use his hot tub.
The woman who reported an incident in 2019 said she met Matthews on Tinder and then met him for brunch, having mimosas before going back to his home. She says Matthew made her a drink and “that after the drink things became very blurry.” The woman remembers nothing after that, until she “woke up to Dr. Matthews having sex with her” in her apartment. After telling him she would not meet him again, “he sent her photos of her naked in the hot tub.”
Matthews is now charged with three counts each of sexual assault/victim helpless, sexual assault/no consent, drugging, and sexual assault overcoming the will of the victim by drugging, and seven counts of second degree assault/drugging.
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[Featured image: Stephen Matthews/Denver Police Department]
