A Boise woman reported being drugged at a bar. Then the system let her down, she said
Clarification: This story has been updated from its original version. The Nov. 24 version of this story contained information that was outdated. St. Luke’s representatives did comment on Jess Tornga’s case, after she signed consent forms granting the hospital permission.
Jess Tornga isn’t afraid of unpleasant conversations, and she isn’t ashamed of what happened to her.
She is, however, disappointed in a system that she says didn’t live up to expectations.
The 28-year-old Boise woman was at her 10-year high school reunion on Sept. 28 when things went sideways at a downtown bar. She took a few drinks of a stranger’s cocktail after he offered — an impulse decision she said she regrets — and wound up collapsing on the floor.
Tornga feels as if she did everything by the book after that. She figured she had been drugged, so she had friends get her out of a dangerous situation and avoided being sexually assaulted. She went to the hospital. She warned her friends, obtained surveillance video, called police to file a report and used social media to find other people who might have been affected.
She shared her story, rather than staying silent. She refused to hide.
And this week she was left with frustration and questions when she learned that the police had closed their investigation and that no charges would be filed against the man she believes drugged her.
“It doesn’t seem like the systems are designed at all to prevent it from happening,” Tornga said. “I feel more victimized by the police and the hospital then this dude (in the bar) who is just an entitled idiot.”
The night in question
A review of the surveillance video from Amsterdam Lounge shows her sitting at the Main Street bar before a man she didn’t know approached her and started talking to her.
Tornga had met some friends as part of their Boise High School reunion. Her friends wandered off to talk to other people in the crowded club, and she was briefly sitting alone. In that moment, at around 10:20 p.m., a man accompanied by an unidentified woman approached Tornga.
”He offered me some cigarettes, but he gave me three instead of one,” Tornga said. “They looked normal, but I think they were laced. I felt pretty gross after smoking it.”
That’s when he offered her a drink from his glass.
“I’d only had one-and-a-half beers,” she said. “I remember because the bar service was so terrible. He was like, ‘Just take a drink off mine.’”
Tornga said she took about three drinks from what was a fruity, sweet cocktail. She believes it was dosed with something strong enough to make her legs go weak and to give her tunnel vision, such as GHB or another of the many so-called date-rape drugs.
“I know I’ll hate myself for taking those drinks for a long time,” she said.
Surveillance video from the bar, provided to Tornga by Amsterdam’s owner, shows the the man giving Tornga his drink and appearing to be pushy about her taking swigs. Within three minutes, she’s seen on video dropping to the floor. The Idaho Statesman watched the video with Tornga this month.
A friend of Tornga’s was nearby. She was easily recognizable in the crowded bar because of her green hair. Tornga flagged down her friend and told her she thought she’d been “roofied.”
“I don’t remember having any control over my legs,” Tornga said. “It was like full-on Jell-o.”
With the help of her friend, Tornga made it to the woman’s car, and they went to Tornga’s house and then to St. Luke’s.
What happened at St. Luke’s
By the time Tornga made it to the hospital, she said she was starting to feel more functional. Tornga told the staff that she thought she’d been drugged and wanted to be tested. The hospital took urine and blood samples.
She said St. Luke’s did a standard toxicology test for substances such as cocaine and marijuana, but not for substances such as GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyrate) or Rohypnol, powerful sedatives that can be used to incapacitate unsuspecting people.
Tornga said she was unaware that she needed to ask specifically for a GHB test.
“I assumed it meant there wasn’t a test for the drug, period,” Tornga said. “... It sounded like it wasn’t an option.”
Hospital officials stressed that St. Luke’s tests blood and urine for medical purposes, not criminal investigations. If a full rape examination is done, it becomes a criminal investigation and results are sent to the state crime lab for reviews. But Tornga was not assaulted and did not need such an exam, so her samples weren’t sent to a crime lab.
“Upon request of a physician or other health care provider, St. Luke’s will collect a GHB test on a patient even without a rape kit,” said Anita Kissee, spokeswoman for St. Luke’s. “Testing is done for medical purposes only.”
Kissee also explained that a patient can request the test and the provider will order it.
St. Luke’s policy is to keep blood specimens for seven days.
“Date rape drugs are metabolized quickly, so blood and/or urine needs to be collected within 24 hours from the time of the suspected ingestion,” Kissee said. “On occasions, it can be 48 hours at the latest for urine and within 12 hours for blood.”
Tornga, who would have been well within that window of time, said she later learned from police that the hospital had destroyed her blood sample.
“How could they destroy it?” Tornga questions. “That’s my blood. That’s my answers.”
Eventually, a detective “attempted to request additional tests on the samples provided by the victim at the hospital, but those samples were no longer a viable option,” the Boise Police Department told the Statesman.
The Statesman obtained copies of the police reports in Tornga’s case through a public records request.
The initial officer in Tornga’s case wrote in his report that the victim “was informed by medical staff that her blood work came back clear and it appeared she had not been ‘roofied.’” He wrote that the victim was adamant that she had been “roofied.”
But Tornga’s blood was not tested for so-called “roofies”; it just underwent a standard toxicology panel. A review of Tornga’s medical records, obtained by the Statesman with her approval, shows that her samples were tested for substances including cocaine, methadone, opiates, THC, methamphetamine, barbiturates and some benzodiazepines, but not Rohypnol or GHB.
How do other hospitals handle testing?
For comparison, Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise has a policy of keeping blood specimens for five days, according to spokesman Mark Snider.
And Saint Al’s policy on GHB testing is similar to St. Luke’s.
“The screen for GHB is not part of our regular toxicology screen,” Snider told the Statesman. “It can be done if law enforcement suspects there’s a need or if the provider suspects there’s a need.”
Saint Alphonsus would need to send the specimen to a private lab or a state crime lab, he said.
“If an individual believes they were drugged but not sexually assaulted, they should still contact police,” Snider said.
The Idaho Hospital Association does not have a statewide policy on testing patients for GHB.
Cyndee Cook, SAFE coordinator for Saint Alphonsus, based at Faces of Hope Victim Center, told the Statesman that toxicology tests from hospitals generally don’t include a GHB screening. The recommendation is to report an incident to police, and police can order a test that can be sent to a crime lab.
If you told medical professionals at a hospital that you had been slipped a date-rape drug, “they would refer you to law enforcement to report it,” Cook said. “Because it’s against the law if someone were to slip you GHB without your consent. And the state crime lab is the best to test for that.”
Checking video, filing a report
About a week after she was drugged, Tornga walked over to the Boise State University campus police center. At the time she was living in an apartment near there, and she said it was the first time she felt well enough to go to police.. She was told to call the dispatch line.
Police dispatch connected Tornga to an officer who was not a detective in the department, and BPD confirmed that its first contact with Tornga was Oct. 6.
Tornga offered to give the officer the surveillance video she got from Ted Challenger, the owner of Amsterdam, but said it was initially hard to connect with the officer.
By this time, Tornga said she had figured out the name of the man who offered her the drink because the bar scans patrons’ IDs. The Idaho Statesman is not disclosing the man’s name because he has not been charged with a crime.
Challenger explained to the Statesman that he drew up a timeline connecting when bar staff scanned the man’s ID upon entry, to the time the man walked around Amsterdam — home to 24 cameras — to the moment he interacted with Tornga and later left.
“In my 26 years in business, I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Challenger, who also owns two other bars in Boise.
Challenger said the video shows that after Tornga interacted with the man, “it was within three minutes that she dropped and that she became almost lifeless.”
Challenger said his bars keep their video surveillance for 60 days, but it also can be put on a hard drive, which is what he did for Tornga.
Talking to BPD
The whole process was frustrating for Tornga. She said some did not make her concerns feel validated, and others made her feel as if her case wasn’t a priority because she escaped further harm.
“Police just, like, did not know how to communicate about it,” Tornga said.
She claimed that one corporal told her the drugging was a “success story” because she wasn’t sexually assaulted.She said it seemed that none of the officers she initially spoke with took her seriously because they knew the chance of prosecution was low.
“That’s fine, but also you have a mission in this community to make people feel safe, and you ain’t doing it,” Tornga said.
Tornga later reached out to the Women’s and Children’s Alliance for help, and the nonprofit referred her to Faces of Hope, which specializes in helping and supporting people affected by sexual violence, and has Boise Police Department detectives working out of its office.
Dealing with the detective assigned to her case at Faces was a much better experience, Tornga said.
“It’s critical that people know about that place,” she said. “I went into Faces and (Detective Jessica Raddatz) had a private room, was very validating, and showed genuine curiosity about what happened, as opposed to why this doesn’t matter.”
Tornga provided police with two of the cigarettes she had been given by the man in hopes that they might provide evidence. But when those were tested, they didn’t show any signs of being tampered with.
The Statesman asked BPD about training policies after hearing about Tornga’s frustrations. Spokeswoman Haley Williams said “officers receive in excess of 40 hours of training regarding interviewing when they are in the academy and additional training throughout their careers.”
Williams said officers are trained by victim witness coordinators, special victims unit detectives, domestic violence detectives and other experts in the field.
“Officers also receive many hours of training in verbal de-escalation and crisis intervention training,” Williams said. “Officers are also trained on all of our department’s core values, one of which is professionalism.”
The policy Williams referenced states: “We require the highest professional and ethical standards and demonstrate honesty and integrity in our words and actions. We treat everyone with respect and dignity, preserve life, protect property, and respect constitutional rights while enforcing the law with fairness and impartiality.”
Did the hospital call police?
Rep. Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise, has been an advocate for enhancing regulations around rape kit testing and is well-known for speaking out about violence against women.
When asked about GHB testing in hospitals, Wintrow pointed to Idaho Code 39-1390, a law that was recently amended.
Idaho Code 39-1390 mandates that hospitals, physicians, nurses and other hospital staff notify local law enforcement if, among other things, they have “reason to believe that the person treated or requesting treatment has received ... any injury indicating that the person may be a victim of a criminal offense.”
Upon learning of the situation involving Tornga, Wintrow stressed that the law should be clear to hospitals.
“It’s my understanding, according to 39-1390, that in the case of a believed crime is committed, they should call police,” Wintrow said.
Tornga said she does not remember anyone calling police while she was at the hospital.
When asked whether St. Luke’s notified law enforcement, BPD spokeswoman Williams said, “I have not been able to verify if a call was made (from St. Luke’s) regarding this incident on Sept. 28 or 29.”
Kissee said police were not notified because Tornga’s case did not meet the criteria required for reporting an injury.
“St. Luke’s takes seriously the health and safety of our patients and our responsibility to report to police when medical staff has reason to believe a patient may be a victim of a crime,” said Kissee, when asked about the decision not to call police.
“In this case, the physician’s medical determination based on the patient’s symptoms, vital signs, physical exam, drug screening, diagnostic tests, mental state, the short time it took her to recover and her account of what happened led him to determine it was likely a medical event that caused the patient to briefly faint, not poisoning.”
Where Jess is today
Sitting in the Boise home she shares with a roommate, alongside her energetic dog, Meesha, Tornga said she wasn’t ever that hopeful charges would be filed.
She does hope, however, that by sharing her story on social media and going public, it can connect people who have had similar experiences and never shared them.
Tornga worked as a firefighter last summer on a wildland crew that was otherwise made up of all men, and she regularly makes self-deprecating remarks. She wears her hair in a mullet, a cut given to her by one of the guys on her fire crew, and one she’s kept to stay nontraditional and to get a rise out of others.
She questions now whether she would have been taken more seriously if she had a more traditional feminine appearance.
“I’m a weird, hipster dirtbag chick with a mullet,” Tornga said. “He’s, like, a handsome person. (The guy at the bar) is a very standard, attractive, body-builder person. So in their minds they don’t understand why that would happen.”
Tornga said she doesn’t want to stay quiet about her experience, though. Sharing something traumatic can be validating and help victims connect with each other and authorities, she said.
“The fear of having unpleasant conversations shouldn’t keep you from having those conversations,” Tornga said.
Idaho Statesman Reporter Audrey Dutton contributed to this report.
Need help?
The Faces of Hope Victim Center is available for victims in need of emergency services at 417 S. 6th St. in Boise. Victims should call 911 in emergencies or call 208-577-4400 on weekdays during business hours. Faces of Hope provides free medical care and forensic examinations for victims, as well as assistance with filing police reports and mental health care after an assault.
Survivors who may need help are encouraged to contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.
This story was originally published November 24, 2019 at 5:00 AM.
