A guest at the high-end Ritz-Carlton hotel in Half Moon Bay claims in a lawsuit that a worker brought her a water bottle containing semen, and that testing confirmed the contamination.
The Washington woman, identified as “Jane Doe,” was celebrating her birthday last November with a four-night stay at the oceanside hotel where rooms start at around $800 per night, according to the lawsuit she filed with her husband of 25 years, identified as “John Doe.”
“The couple intended to celebrate her special day at a special place,” the lawsuit filed this month in Oakland U.S. District Court said.
After the couple returned to their room following a Friday night dinner, Jane called the front desk to ask for bottled water, according to the lawsuit.
A male worker “moments later” brought several bottles bearing the Ritz-Carlton logo, and Jane put them on her nightstand and went to bed, the lawsuit said.
She awoke thirsty in the night, grabbed a bottle, “took a drink, and knew immediately that something was wrong with the liquid she had just swallowed,” the lawsuit claimed.
“One of the hotel’s employees ejaculated his semen into a Ritz-Carlton labeled water bottle, delivered it to Jane and John Doe’s room, and Jane Doe then drank the semen-contaminated water before she realized it had been defiled by a criminal deviant,” the lawsuit alleged.
Jane called hotel security and went to the front desk with a security staffer, and John asked the Ritz-Carlton to call the police and keep the bottle secure for investigation, the lawsuit claimed.
A San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office deputy arrived and took a statement from Jane, the lawsuit alleged.
Jane alleged in the lawsuit that she had first thought the water was “chemically contaminated” and that when she was with hotel staff and management she “began to realize” the taste was “similar to semen.” At that point she “shared her suspicion with her husband, who then asked the hotel security and management representatives to call the police.”
John has been in contact with the deputy who came to the hotel, but the officer told him the investigation had stalled because the hotel companies “have refused to turn over the defiled water bottle,” the lawsuit alleged.
“Consequently, law enforcement authorities have been precluded from conducting their own analysis of that evidence, and precluded from cross-referencing the DNA against sex offender registries and other law enforcement databases,” the lawsuit claimed. “The Ritz-Carlton and Marriott International have also refused to disclose the identities of the hotel employees on duty that day so that their backgrounds and criminal histories can be scrutinized.”
San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Javier Acosta said the department conducted a “welfare check” at the hotel regarding a woman who claimed she drank from a bottle with water that tasted like chlorine. The woman refused medical attention and declined an offer to involve a poison control center, Acosta said.
“An investigation was not conducted on this matter,” Acosta said.
About two months after the purported incident, a claims adjuster for the hotel’s parent company Marriott International confirmed by phone that “lab tests had revealed that the fluid in the water bottle had been defiled with semen,” the lawsuit claimed.
The Ritz-Carlton and Marriott did not respond to requests for comment.
Jane was left furious, “ashamed of having been sexually violated,” and terrified that she may have been exposed to infection, the lawsuit alleged.
The lawsuit accuses The Ritz-Carlton of sexual battery and negligence, and suggests that the alleged assailant likely victimized “countless other guests” in similar fashion. The couple are seeking unspecified damages.