Six women have initiated legal action against a former Colorado cardiologist, alleging they were drugged and raped by him. The lawsuit also targets the dating platforms where they encountered him.
This legal complaint accuses the dating app Hinge of being aware of Stephen Matthews’ predatory behavior on their platform but failing to act until his arrest in 2023, as reported by KCNC.
In a previous court case, Matthews was found guilty of drugging 11 women and raping eight of them. According to a report by CrimeOnline, he received a 158-year prison sentence. His medical license was revoked by the state of Colorado earlier this year.
The lawsuit, which is expected to be filed in Denver on Tuesday, claims that a 33-year-old woman first alerted Hinge about Matthews in September 2020 after an incident where she awoke unclothed on his floor. The app reportedly replied that her report “is currently being addressed and acted on by our team.”
Hinge’s response included a standard message stating, “We take abuse reporting very seriously, and we’ll be taking immediate steps to prevent any behavior on Hinge that violates our Member Principles and Terms of Service,” emphasizing that “Your safety is our main concern … ”
Despite this, the same woman matched with Matthews on the app three months later and reported him again. Hinge replied by stating that Matthews had been “permanently banned” and that measures were in place to prevent his return.
Three years later, another woman — who asked that her last name not be used — told KCNC that she matched with Matthews on Hinge. The lawsuit said that he was still using the same profile picture, biographical information, and phone number.
“I thought it was unbelievably unacceptable, disrespectful and just horrifying,” said Alexa, 25.
Alexa said she matched with Matthews when she was just 22 and met him at his townhome in Denver in January 2023. She said she had two drinks and then completely blanked out, awakening at her home 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,” she said. “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.”
Carrie Goldberg, one of the attorneys in the new lawsuit, said that Hinge and its parent company, Match Group, knew Matthews “was a dangerous rapist” but chose “profit over safety, not giving a damn.” The emails to the company complaining about him “show Hinge knew Stephen Matthews was going around drugging and raping” but did nothin until his arrest in 2023.
Videos of Matthews raping Alexa were found on his phone and used in the case against him.
In another boilerplate response, Hinge said after Matthews’ arrest that the company was “always” working to “improve our systems, and search for ways to help our users stay safe, both online and when they connect in real life.”
“We take every report of misconduct seriously, and vigilantly remove and block accounts that have violated our rules regarding this behavior,” the company said.
The lawsuit alleges that just wasn’t true.
The lawsuit also names the dating app Tinder because Matthews was also active there, KMGH reports.
