COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—Jurors on Friday acquitted a state hospital worker accused of trying to drug a woman by slipping a tranquilizer into her drink while they were on a date last year at a Colorado Springs restaurant.
The El Paso County District Court jury deliberated for about four hours before finding Robert Psaty, 57, not guilty. He was charged with felony assault and attempting to drug another person.
Psaty, a clinician at the Colorado State Mental Institute in Pueblo, was arrested in January 2008 after a waiter at a Ruby Tuesday restaurant reported seeing him put a pill in his date’s margarita when she left the table to go to the salad bar.
Psaty testified that the woman had told him before they went to the restaurant that she was bipolar. He said she gave him the anxiety-relief medication with instructions to give it to her if she became hyperactive during dinner.
Psaty and the woman had met through an online dating service and were on their first date.
Waiter Colt Haugen testified that he removed the drink after seeing Psaty put the pill into it and called police. Investigators tested the drink and found it contained Diazepam, commonly sold as Valium.
Psaty’s date denied giving him the pill or asking him to give it to her at dinner.
Psaty was placed on leave from the hospital after being arrested.
“This has been a very difficult ordeal for Mr. Psaty,” said his attorney, Joe Koncilja. “Even when you win an acquittal, he bears the stigma of all that’s transpired. It’s hard to take your reputation back.”
Jury foreman Johnnie Vasquez of Colorado Springs said jurors questioned the credibility of Psaty’s date and felt there was too little evidence to convict.
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Information from: The Gazette,
