A rapist cardiologist wept in court after being found guilty of dozens of charges of drugging and sexually assaulting women he pursued on online dating websites.
Stephen Matthews, 36, has been on trial for the past few weeks, having been charged with 38 counts, all of them felonies.
Despite pleading not guilty to all charges in October 2023, Matthews was found guilty of nearly all of the sexual assault charges brought against him by jurors in Denver on Tuesday.
The Denver cardiologist met women online through dating apps and then drugged and assaulted them. He was charged with drugging 11 of his victims and sexually assaulting nine of them.
Matthews broke down in court Tuesday as the judge read dozens of guilty verdicts, occasionally putting his hands on his head and crying.
Stephen Matthews, 36 (pictured), has been on trial for the past few weeks, having been charged with 38 counts, all of them felonies.
The former doctor has been held in the Denver jail on $5 million bail since his arrest in March 2023.
He faces a minimum of five years in prison and a maximum of 25 years. His sentencing is scheduled for October 25.
Prosecutors emphasized in closing arguments last week that each victim offered very similar accounts of what happened.
The women said they met Matthews through online dating apps, including Hinge and Tinder, beginning in 2019 and continuing through early 2023.
They were under the impression they were having a drink with the cardiologist, but then lost all memory of what happened next and woke up believing they had been drugged and sexually assaulted, in some cases.
Following Tuesday’s decision, one of the victims said: CBS“A verdict doesn’t change what happened to you. There are physical and emotional issues I will have to deal with for the rest of my life as a result of what happened to me.”
“I don’t think he regrets what he did. I think he regrets getting caught,” she continued.
“It took years off our lives,” said another.
Matthews sobbed dramatically in court Tuesday as the judge read dozens of guilty verdicts, occasionally putting her head in her hands and crying.
Prosecutors also argued that Matthews was strategic in identifying his targets, meeting them at locations close to his home and then inviting them over.
“What we do know is that this is a very obvious case of a man who feels entitled to perpetrate acts against women for his own benefit, robbing them of their memory, robbing them of their bodily autonomy and damaging their memories,” prosecutors said.
Defense attorneys argued that the case included many inconsistent stories from the alleged victims, without any supporting evidence.
“This was going to be a case about stories, and at the end of the case, the prosecution’s closure was based largely on stories, incriminating stories that changed and were often not proven by the government,” the defense attorneys said.
“The case was fraught with emotion. We were all moved by the testimony we heard. It was difficult to listen to, but that’s what the case ended up being: overwhelming emotions and disappointing evidence.”
Stephen J. Burg represented dozens of Matthews’ alleged victims in a civil case.
She said the victims’ stories were all very similar: “He would build trust and then invite them out for a drink, usually near his home, and drug them with that drink,” Burg alleges.
“They were very, very incapacitated and they didn’t know what was happening. And he was sexually assaulting them.”
“He was very clever and able to build trust. He would say ‘let’s meet in a public place’ and talk about his dog and often use that as an excuse to go back to his house or apartment,” Burg said.