Million-dollar bail in alleged drug-rape in Castro bar

By Jon Wiener

The defendant in an alleged kidnap and rape from a downtown bar is due out on bail after posting a $1 million bond, after the judge in the case reversed an earlier decision Tuesday and ruled that the man did not pose a flight risk or a danger to the community.

John Lietzke, a 26-year-old Saratoga man, is facing eight years in prison on charges that he raped a 22-year-old woman three times that night after someone slipped a drug into her drink. Lietzke has not been charged with drugging her -- police believe she may have been given Rohypnol -- and has maintained that the sex was consensual.

Deputy district attorney Steve Fein said investigators are still looking into additional charges against Lietzke in connection with the incident at the Buddha Lounge on the night of Jan. 30.

"We're really just still getting started," said Fein, who declined to comment on the details of the case.

Police reports paint a gruesome picture of what happened that night, when the woman went to the Castro Street bar to drink alone. She told police she was on her fourth chocolate martini when she got up to go the bathroom. The next thing she knew, she reported, she was in a strange car in a dark parking lot, with a strange man's hands around her neck.

According to the police report, the woman passed out as she realized she was being raped. She woke up some time later, with a man later identified as Lietzke asleep in the car next to her. She ran back to her car, which was only a block away, and drove straight to the hospital.

Rap sheet for 'DEA John'

Lietzke had been a regular at the Buddha Lounge and other Castro Street bars for about a year, and occasionally hopped behind the bar to help serve drinks. Bartenders knew him as "DEA John," because he told people he worked for the federal Drug Enforcement Agency.

What bartenders didn't know was that Lietzke was a convicted felon with a pending weapon charge, that San Jose police have an ongoing case against him for allegedly impersonating a police officer, and that Santa Clara detectives are suspicious that he was responsible for the drugging of his ex-girlfriend in a 2004 rape.

Police are also investigating the possibility that Lietzke was involved in another apparent drugging incident at the bar, one that resulted in the car crash of a bar employee. Lietzke was never charged in that case.

Police reports describe Lietzke's criminal record as "extensive." It begins with a petty theft at age 19, escalating to a jail sentence in 2000 for armed burglary. Even as he set bail on Tuesday, Judge Douglas K. Southard remarked on Lietzke's rap sheet.

"I find it surprising that there's been such a lengthy criminal history from one so young and from such privileged circumstances," Southard said.

Bartender close to events

According to the police report, Lietzke told the bartender working that night that he thought his friend, also at the bar and identified only as "Eric," had put Rohypnol in the victim's drink.

Rohypnol, a central nervous system depressant commonly known as "roofies," comes in clear liquid form and wears off so quickly that it is nearly untraceable. A small amount slipped into a drink can render a victim capable of functioning but unable to remember anything that happens over the next few hours. Victims report coming to in strange places, completely unaware of how they got there.

There were no more than half a dozen people at the Buddha Lounge that Monday night, and the bartender refused Lietzke's request to kick "Eric" out of the bar. He would later tell police that he noticed a sudden change in the victim's behavior as she danced with Lietzke.

At the end of the night, the bartender and Lietzke argued over who would take responsibility for the victim. Finally the employee deferred to Lietzke, who carried her down from the upstairs bathroom and left with her, according to the report.

Sarah Zigler, owner of the Buddha Lounge, said bartenders normally should find a customer's friends or hail a cab as soon as they think the customer can no longer care for him or herself. Zigler said her employee may not have done so in this case because he believed Lietzke was a DEA agent.

Arrested at Sharks game

During their investigation, police were able to obtain copies of Lietzke's phone records, which led to a search warrant for his parents' house.

In Lietzke's bedroom, detectives reported finding vials of unidentified clear liquids, as well as an eye dropper and some unidentified pills. The report also says that Lietzke's laptop was left open to a Yahoo search page for "Mountain View police sexual assault vehicle." Two small white tablets and two plastic tubes with yellow-green fluorescent liquid were also found in Lietzke's car, police said.

Detectives arrested him at the San Jose Sharks game Feb. 2.

Lietzke's lawyer, Palo Alto defense attorney Dan Barton, said in court Tuesday that reports of Rohypnol were purely "speculation," and he claimed that the vials found in Lietzke's bedroom did not contain any date-rape drugs. Barton also said that the alleged victim had much more to drink than she admitted to police.

"At the end of the investigation, there's not going to be anything to suggest that woman ingested anything but alcohol she chose to drink herself," Barton said.

Lietzke told Detective Elizabeth Wylie that the woman was acting sexually aggressive. According to Wylie's report, he began crying under questioning and said he had made a mistake, though he continued to deny drugging the victim.

Wylie wrote in her report, "A voice in the back of his head told him not to do anything with her and to leave her alone, but he didn't listen. He admitted he should have listened to the little voice."

Zigler's staff already takes additional precautions to protect patrons against the proliferation of Rohypnol and other so-called "date-rape drugs," like GHB and ketamine. Zigler said the Buddha Lounge does not let people even bring clear water bottles inside -- "it only takes a capful" -- and tries to make sure customers do not leave their drinks unattended.

She said a drug can be slipped into a drink in the moment a customer turns his or her back to talk to a friend. Zigler said it is especially important for women to go to bars with other people they trust. Even when out with friends, they should designate a sober person who knows them well and have them watch for strange behavior.

Other bars recommend similar precautions."The safest thing I would say is you don't leave your drink unattended," said Des Whelan, manager at St. Stephen's Green on Castro Street. "You can always leave it with a bartender, and he'll keep it in a refrigerator for you."Police spokesman Jim Bennett said spiking drinks takes place more often than most people know. Many do not report it, he said, because they don't realize what has happened. And for those that do, it is often hard to prove."The problem is that, in many cases, these drugs stay in a person's system for a very short period of time," he said. "With every moment that goes by there's less likelihood that it's going to show up in toxicology tests."The police department is hosting a safety training session run by the department of Alcoholic Beverage Control for bar and liquor store owners and employees on March 22 from 1 to 4 p.m. To sign up, call the police events line at (650) 903-6161, ext. 1395.

E-mail Jon Wiener at jwiener