At least 9 claims of drugged drinks at Wine Country bar shock Healdsburg

While spiked drink incidents often lead to sexual assault or rape, Healdsburg police confirmed that none of the reports they’ve received alleged sexual misconduct of any kind, nor any physical assaults or robbery. As the investigation stands, the community of Healdsburg has far more questions than answers.

An outcry erupted following the Facebook post. The poster’s feed, and Duke’s own social media platforms, were flooded with comments by others saying they or someone they knew felt their drinks had been drugged at Duke’s in recent months.

“That’s the one thing we’re really wondering: why something like this is happening, what’s the motive, who is causing it and why,” said Sgt. John Haviland of the Healdsburg Police Department.

杜克的主人戴维•“公爵”Ducommun公司合作ting with police and provided security footage from the bar from April 2, said he was not previously contacted by police regarding the earlier reports of drinks possibly being spiked and was aware of only one other incident in 2019, which was investigated and then dropped by the woman who reported it.

The allegations come just a year after the neighboring town of Windsor experienced a性侵犯丑闻involving its mayor, Dominic Foppoli, whom multiple women have accused of drugging them before assaulting them. (Foppoli denied the allegations.) Healdsburg is historically known as a charming and sleepy Wine Country town with little nightlife. But its prestige as a Bay Area tourist destination一直在上升. The allegations involving Duke’s could impact the city’s renaissance just as it’s gaining momentum.

Healdsburg police have confirmed that at least eight additional reports have been filed since last October from people claiming to have been drugged at Duke’s. Several of these were filed after the woman’s April Facebook post. At least one report came from a man.

Haviland said that there are no suspects, and that while past reports were investigated at the time, police are now in the process of following up with each person.

The Chronicle spoke with the woman who made the Facebook post and four other women who believe their drinks were spiked at the bar in recent months. The Facebook poster, whom The Chronicle agreed not to name to protect her identity, said that in the hour she was at Duke’s, she consumed two drinks. She said she didn’t remember calling her friend for a ride or the ride home. Once home, she said, she lay on the bathroom floor unable to move, see or speak, before vomiting all through the night.

Two women, Nina Jarnum and Maya Joye, told The Chronicle separately that they believe they’d been drugged at Duke’s on the same night, Nov. 13. They don’t know each other.

Jarnum是一位44岁的Petaluma居民，在晚餐后喝了两杯酒后，那天晚上和一个朋友一起出去。她说，在杜克大学（Duke's），她喝了一只鸡尾酒，几分钟之内，“全世界开始航行。”Jarnum感到恶心，跑出酒吧并呕吐。她的朋友给了她一个骑车回家，然后她说她在床上“倒下”并昏倒了。直到八个小时后，她才醒来。

“我没有好起来。我还在戴高跟鞋，”她说。“八个小时了。完整黑色。”

纳帕（Napa）居民乔伊（Joye）与男友和一群亲密朋友在当晚在杜克（Duke）的同一天。她事先吃了晚餐和一杯啤酒，然后在杜克大学（Duke's）又有了三场啤酒，在那里她花了大约五个小时。她说：“这足以让我有些嗡嗡作响或尖叫，但我却在说话。”“我很明显地喝醉了，我的男朋友说，‘该回家了。’”

27岁的乔伊（Joye）回家后说，她呕吐到下午2点。第二天。

The women’s stories are consistent with symptoms associated with date rape drugs, which include excessive drunkenness, gaps in memory, nausea and a loss of muscle control. Drugs like Rohypnol, the most commonly known date rape drug, typically take effect quickly, and the effects can last for hours.

与警方的报告一致，《纪事报》交谈的妇女都没有说，她们在他们认为被吸毒的那天晚上被殴打或利用。他们所有人都说朋友或亲戚帮助他们安全回家。

Four of the five women told The Chronicle they believe they must have been drugged by whoever made their drinks but did not name a specific person. All said they either ordered the drinks themselves or got them from a friend they trusted and had not left their drinks unattended.

Ducommun said he’s reviewed security footage from other reports and that there was no consistency to which bartender made the drinks. He added that the bar’s 16-camera security system surveils “everything but the bathrooms,” including the drink-preparation areas. Police confirmed they didn’t see anything suspicious on the April 2 tape and have not yet viewed footage of other alleged incidents.

Haviland said that police are looking into multiple scenarios and that the next steps in the investigation will be to interview Duke’s employees, alleged victims, and community members and attempt to view security footage from other reported incidents. Police said they have also contacted the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

Haviland said police have not received any complaints or reports related to drugging at any other Healdsburg establishments in recent months.

Duke’s faced criticism over the way it responded to the drugging claims and resulting concerns. The bar did not acknowledge the allegations for three days after the Facebook post. And when some community members took to Duke’s social media pages to express their concerns, the bar deleted several of those comments from its Instagram account, according to screenshots obtained by The Chronicle.

Ducommun said he deleted only comments that were “threats of arson against the bar” and “threats that were personal to me, my family and my employees.” But some comments reviewed by The Chronicle contained no threats.

Healdsburg resident Chloe Connaughton’s post was among those deleted. “I really hope you and your staff are taking precautions to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” Connaughton wrote. “People want to feel safe and trust their bartender, but it feels hard to trust anyone at your establishment when this unfortunate situation has become so rampant.”

杜康（Ducommun）告诉《纪事报》（Chronicle），酒吧已加大了为确保酒吧安全的努力。

他说，自从指控发布以来，他已经提高了安全性，并在员工对客户安全的年度第三方培训中增加了两天的时间。

杜康（Ducommun）还表示，他暂时建立了全女性的调酒工作人员，“以帮助顾客更加舒适。”酒吧在浴室中添加了QR码，以链接到资源，以防任何人发现自己处于不舒服的状态。

“We should have told people immediately how much we care and what we’ve done to address this issue,” he said.

这位上周发表Facebook帖子的女士和另外两个人与《纪事》进行了交谈，条件是他们的名字不被使用，因为他们说他们担心自己的安全以及杜克的支持者的反对。一些妇女说，他们已经收到了在社交媒体上发表讲话的威胁信息。

一位22岁的妇女描述了一个与乔伊和贾努姆共同的事件非常相似的事件。她说，去年10月，她喝了两杯鸡尾酒，然后不记得任何事情。第二天，她感到非常恶心。那天晚上也在酒吧里的一个朋友证实了她的故事。

One month earlier, a Santa Rosa resident, now 28, said she “blacked out” after having three glasses of sparkling wine over the course of several hours, which included eating dinner. The third glass was consumed at Duke’s. In the morning, she was vomiting, couldn’t keep food or water down and “had the shakes.” Her sister drove her to the hospital for treatment.

None of the women have been able to prove they were drugged via urine tests. While some of the women did go in for drug testing, they discovered later that they had not been tested for the drugs typically used to spike drinks, like Rohypnol, ketamine and gamma hydroxybutyrate. The others said they did not seek testing because they assumed it was too late. These tests, often referred to as date-rape test panels, typically need to be performed as soon as possible, as the drugs are known to leave the system within one to two days.

乔伊和另外两名女性与阿宝提交报告lice expressed disappointment in the department’s initial handling of their claims, saying that they were asked few questions and did not receive any follow-up until the Facebook post prompted a new investigation.

乔伊说：“我觉得自己正在报告一辆被盗的自行车。”“我觉得她对我对我有什么作用并完全无视它没有概念。”

Haviland said that the Healdsburg Police Department prides itself on delivering “some of the best police service around” and encouraged those dissatisfied with their experiences to call back.

“Unfortunately in cases like this, if you don’t do as thorough of an investigation as you could, it’s hard to go back,” he said. “An accusation or report of this one time is extremely serious, and we need to do as thorough of an investigation as possible.”

The women interviewed by The Chronicle say they had no idea why they may have been targeted, or what the motive or motives might have been. Joye suggested that perhaps someone was spiking drinks with the hopes of taking advantage of a woman after their shift, while Jarnum theorized it might be “a desire to create chaos.”

“I’m just happy I was safe and I had someone to take care of me,” she said. “I keep thinking if I had not thrown up, would I have woken up again?”

Jess Lander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email:jess.lander@sfchronicle.com推特:@jesslander

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