KALAMAZOO, MI — A woman told police she was sexually assaulted last year after her drink was drugged at Y Bar & Bistro, which is now the focusing of a drink-tampering investigation, reports show.
Months later, a second woman reported she was sexually assaulted after drinking at the same bar. She did not tell police her drink was drugged but she said she had no memory after taking a shot of tequila.
On Jan. 28, 2020, a woman reported to the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety she believed someone “drugged her drink at the Y-Bar and raped her,” an officer wrote in a police report. She said the incident occurred on Jan. 25 and she wanted to press charges if a suspect was found.
Less than 10 months later, a Western Michigan University freshman, after being out with friends at the Y Bar & Bistro, reported to police she was sexually assaulted in the woods nearby, and did not remember a portion of the night.
She was separated from her friends, and briefly remembers a man sexually assaulted her, according to the police report.
Kalamazoo’s Y Bar & Bistro, 2941 Howard St., is currently under a police investigation after a report last week from a woman who said she believes she and more than a dozen friends were drugged. The bar is located across the street from Western Michigan University’s main campus.
Related: ‘We want to see them shut down,’ protesters say of Kalamazoo bar accused of drink tampering
MLive requested under the Freedom of Information Act police reports dating back to Jan. 1, 2018, to see all reports involving alleged drink tampering, date rape, GHB, or similar allegations at the address of the bar.
The most recent woman making accusations caught the attention of police and city officials after a video she posted online this month naming the person at the bar she believes drugged her, went viral.
MLive is not identifying the person at this time because charges have not been issued.
The woman said she and her friends tested positive for opiates, and some tested positive for tranquilizers.
Multiple KDPS detectives are investigating the incident, spokesman Ryan Bridges said last week. The department has obtained video related to the case and it is being reviewed, he said.
Chief Vernon Coakley Jr. posted a video on April 15 about what police are doing:
Coakley said several detectives are working to get to the bottom of the situation. They have received other tips since the incident was reported, he said.
“We will share more details once they are available,” Coakley said.
Bridges declined to answer additional questions about suspects, or if police had identified suspects, on Thursday, April 23. He said he could not answer additional questions at this stage in the investigation.
Police reports surface
In the January 2020 incident, a 31-year-old woman said she was sexually assaulted at some point between the time she left the Y Bar and when she woke up at her friend’s house. She stated that they had some drinks at the Y Bar, and the last thing she remembers happening that night was running across a road to the liquor store with her friends. She did not remember anything after that, the report states.
When she woke up the next day at a friend’s house, she was not wearing any pants or underwear. She was not able to tell an officer who assaulted her, police said.
An officer contacted the Y Bar about obtaining video footage, and was advised to call back the next day. The footage is not referenced again.
The case file’s last update is in July 2020: “No probable cause or criminal elements are present in this matter at this time. It should be closed, inactive, pending any CODIS match from the sexual assault kit.”
In the second case, on the evening of Nov. 7, a 19-year-old WMU freshman arrived at the bar at 10:31 p.m. with two other women.
While at the Y Bar, the 19-year-old woman consumed a drink with lemonade and vodka in it as soon as she arrived, police wrote in the report.
She also recalls three males who bought them a shot of tequila, the police report says. She described the men to police.
The woman, whose name was redacted from the police report to protect her identity, told police she had no memory after taking a tequila shot and a doing a Snapchat video at 11:20 p.m.
She did not recall anything else that happened that night until she woke up later in the nearby woods, the report states.
“She has a quick second of a memory of being in the woods and someone being there with her. She also apparently told them that she recalls hearing voices and feeling like people were watching her,” the report states. Some of the conversations were based on talks the victim had with her friends immediately after the incident and they later relayed to her, because she did not remember some of the details herself, the report states.
An officer talked to her about the process of prosecution and testifying in court, and asked her to think about what she would like to do regarding the case.
Technical difficulties prevented officers from collecting security footage from inside, other than 6 minutes showing the main entrance. The report does not say what, if anything, was observed on the interior security footage.
Investigators did obtain exterior security footage from the property manager.
It shows the woman being led out of the bar by a white male suspect, the report states. The suspect is described as tall and thin, wearing a white baseball cap backward, with a dark long sleeve jacket or sweatshirt and light colored shorts to the knees and white shoes.
“The victim appears visibly intoxicated, swaying and having difficulty walking. The suspect leads her by the hand and when she sways away from him at one point he puts an arm around to support her as they walk (northbound) through the lot heading toward SoHo apts, building 770,” an officer wrote in the report.
Police found more exterior cameras from the nearby apartment building, and examined them:
“The suspect appears to lead her away by the hand and they walk WB toward the wooded area where this incident occurred,” the report states.
A specimen kit was screened for “date rape drugs” and other substances. While alcohol and THC, found in cannabis, were in her system, the test did not detect any GHB, sometimes called the date rape drug, or amphetamine.
The tests show the samples were received at the Michigan State Police crime lab on Nov. 10, 2020, and completed about a month later on Dec. 9, 2020.
Bridges said on Friday the department was checking to see either cases from 2020 were sent to the prosecutor’s office for review.
Representatives from the Y Bar have not returned multiple requests for comment.
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