Man Held on $1 Million Bail for Attempted Date Rape After Women Warn Stranger

Man Held on $1 Million Bail for Attempted Date Rape After Women Warn Stranger
Epoch Newsroom
5/31/2016
Updated:
5/31/2016

A California man has been identified several days after being arrested for allegedly trying to spike his date’s drink.

Michael Hsu, 24, was arrested by Santa Monica police after three women told his date in the bathroom that they'd seen him put a vial in the woman’s beverage. 

Sonia Ulrich, Marla Selzer, and Monica Kenyon relayed the bizarre turn of events on Facebook.

“He pulled her glass toward him, kind of awkwardly, then he took out a little black vial. He opened it up and dropped something in. Then he tried to play it cool, like checking his phone and hiding the vial in his hand and then trying to bring it back down slyly,” they wrote.

Ulrich then went to the bathroom to warn the woman. 

“I approached. ‘Hey! Um, this is kind of weird, but, uh, we saw the guy you were with put something in your drink.’ ‘Oh My God.’ She said. Shocked, kind of numb, so I babbled ‘Yeah, my girlfriend said she saw him put something in your drink and we had to say something. Woman to woman... you know. We had to say something. How well do you know that guy?’ I was expecting to hear ‘We just met,’ but I got: ‘He’s one of my best friends.’”

The woman had actually known Hsu for a year and a half, and they worked together for some time.

The manager went over to the table to make sure Marla was safe, and told the establishment’s security guard what had happened, reported Jezebel.

“The poor woman had to sit through 40 more minutes, sitting across from ‘one of her best friends’ knowing that he was trying to drug her. Marla noticed him several times chinking his glass to hers to get her to drink. She played it cool. Mostly, I believed, just stunned,” Ultrich continued.

“Eventually, they finished up dinner. There was a delay getting their bill ‘The computer is down’ is what the waiter kept saying to him. Then, in walks Santa Monica PD. They say ‘Come with us’ and he doesn’t protest. Doesn’t ask why. Doesn’t seem surprised.”

A review of CCTV footage confirmed Hsu put an unknown substance into the woman’s drink.

Ulrich said she wants people to know about what happened to keep an eye out for each other.

So thank you, everyone at Fig and Fairmont in Santa Monica for keeping this guy from harming someone.

“And thank you in advance to everyone who sees this and shares this and reminds each other that yes, you SHOULD say something. Even if it’s awkward or weird or just uncertain if anything can be done,” she wrote.

As of Tuesday morning, the Daily Mail reported, Hsu was still being held in jail on $1 million bail.