“I had cuts and a bump on my forehead, I was covered in vomit, my leggings I wore to his house were shredded at the crotch, so I woke up in kind of disarray,” Alexa told CBS News. “My first thought was, it couldn’t be him, he’s a doctor, he took an oath to protect people, like why would he ever do this … but I really couldn’t wrap my head around it. The memory was so much lost. I mean, something horrible happened to me in order for me to end up in this state.”
Six women who say they were drugged and sexually assaulted by a former Colorado cardiologist are planning to file a lawsuit against the owners of a popular dating app.
According to CBS News, the women all say that they met Matthews through Hinge.
The women claim that Hinge had reason to suspect that Matthews was a predator, yet let him remain on the platform for years. One of the prospective plaintiffs, identified by the name “Alexa,” said the platform’s oversight was “unacceptable.”
“I thought it was unbelievably unacceptable, disrespectful, and just horrifying,” said Alexa.
Alexa told CBS News that she met Matthews on Hinge in 2023. However, Alexa claims that she was drugged and sexually assaulted after her first date with Matthews. She later learned that another women had reported the doctor to Hinge as a “rapist” in 2020, re-filing the same complaint again in 2021. Matthews, though, remained on the platform until after his date with Alexa.
“Whatever they weren’t doing, they weren’t listening, and they were just kind of keeping him on. I know he was paying but it seemed like they cared more about him being on the site than women’s safety,” Alexa told CBS News Colorado.
Alexa said that she agreed to meet Matthews in January 2023 at his townhouse in Denver. She had two shots of alcohol shortly after arriving. Within 15 minutes, she lost consciousness before suffering complete memory loss. She claims only to remember waking up in her own bed the next morning.
“I had cuts and a bump on my forehead, I was covered in vomit, my leggings I wore to his house were shredded at the crotch, so I woke up in kind of disarray,” Alexa told CBS News. “My first thought was, it couldn’t be him, he’s a doctor, he took an oath to protect people, like why would he ever do this … but I really couldn’t wrap my head around it. The memory was so much lost. I mean, something horrible happened to me in order for me to end up in this state.”
Prosecutors later said that they found at least two videos of Alexa on Matthews’ smartphone, including one in which he appeared to “climb” on top of the woman.
CBS News notes that Alexa, along with Matthews’ other alleged victims, eventually learned that Matthews had been reported to Hinge in September 2020 by 33-year-old Alex Collins.
Collins, like Alexa, claims that she was sedated and sexually assaulted. She reported Matthews to Hinge’s Trust and Safety department and was told that her submission “is currently being addressed and acted on by our team. We take abuse reporting very seriously, and we’ll be taking immediate steps to prevent nay behavior on Hinge that violates our Member Principles and Terms of Service. Your safety is our main concern.”
However, Collins says that she again found Matthews’ profile on Hinge. After matching with him, she sent a follow-up email. “This is the second time I am reporting this. I was raped and subsequently hospitalized after a first date with an individual I met and communicated with via hinge [sic] […] he still exists within your ecosystem, and is posing as a potential threat to other women within the Hinge community.”
In response, Hinge said that it had “permanently banned” Matthews after receiving Collins’s first report. “We have now permanently banned that account and taken additional steps to ensure that he stays permanently off Hinge,” the company wrote in an email response.
Matthews was convicted by a criminal court of 35 counts involving at least 10 women who say that the former cardiologist drugged them on or after dates; at least eight of the women claim to have been sexually assaulted, too. Matthews is currently serving a 158-year prison sentence.
Sources
US date rape survivors file lawsuit accusing Hinge and Tinder of ‘accommodating rapists’
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