A former cardiologist accused of drugging and sexually assaulting women he met on dating apps sobbed — putting his head in his hands to hide a steady stream of tears — in a Denver court Tuesday as a jury found him guilty on charges that could put him behind bars for 25 years.
Stephen Matthews was found guilty of 35 of the 38 charges against him, which included counts of sexual assault and second-degree assault, CBS News reported.
Matthews, 36, was arrested in March last year after a woman reported he assaulted her after they went to brunch, with her story prompting other women to come forward to report his abuse, 9 News reported.
During closing arguments last week, prosecutors recounted how the victims met Matthews from 2019 to 2023 on online dating apps like Hinge and Tinder, with many of the victims offering similar accounts of what happened with Matthews.
The victims said that after having drinks with the physician, they were unable to remember what happened that night and believed they were drugged, and in some cases, sexually assaulted, CBS reported.
Despite him putting on a show of emotion — often hiding his face in his hands and sobbing — in the courtroom Tuesday, Matthews’ victims say they don’t believe he is sorry for what he put them through.
“A verdict doesn’t change what happened to you. There are lifelong physical and emotional things that I will be dealing with as a result of what happened to me,” one of the victims told CBS.
“I think he’s not sorry for what he did. I think he’s sorry he got caught,” she added.
Another victim slammed Matthews for taking away “years of our life.”
During the trial, prosecutors argued Matthews was strategic when targeting his victims, often meeting them at places not far from his home before inviting them over.
“What we do know is that this is an obvious, obvious case of a man who feels entitled to perpetrate against women for his own benefit, by robbing them of memory, by robbing them of bodily autonomy, and by impairing their memories,” prosecutors said.
Defense attorneys argued during closing statements that the case included many inconsistent stories from the alleged victims with a lack of proof or evidence.
“This would be a case about stories, and at the end of the case, the DA’s closing rested largely on stories, accusing stories that changed and often went untested by the government,” defense attorneys said.
“The case did have a lot of overwhelming emotion. We all were moved by the testimony that you heard. It was tough to listen to, but that’s what the case ended up being about, overwhelming emotion and underwhelming evidence.”
The former doctor has been in jail on a $5 million bond since his arrest. He faces a minimum of five years in jail — and a maximum sentence of 25 years.
Denver District Attorney Beth McCann lauded the victims for their courage to come forward in a statement.
“Stephen Matthews took advantage of nearly a dozen women in the most egregious way imaginable, and for that he will now pay a significant price. I hope today’s verdict provides a measure of comfort to all the victims, whose courage throughout this case should be an inspiration to us all,” McCann said.
“I want to thank the prosecutors, investigators, victim advocates and paralegals from my office, as well as the detectives from the Denver Police Department, whose outstanding work got us to this point today. I also want to thank the jurors for their service during this lengthy and emotional trial. Justice was clearly served today.”
Matthews is set to be sentenced on Oct. 25.
