Cardiologist case triggers legal action against dating app: "It recklessly matches innocent people with criminals"
A Brooklyn-based attorney says she will likely file a lawsuit against the dating app Hinge after the app was notified in 2020 and 2021 of concerns about Denver cardiologist Stephen Matthews, 35, allegedly sexually assaulting a woman he met via Hinge. Matthews somehow managed to maintain a presence on the app for three more years.
Women say during that time, they met Matthews through the app and he allegedly drugged them and sexually assaulted them.
Carrie Goldberg, a lawyer who specializes in suing high-tech businesses, said she had been retained by a woman who was allegedly sexually assaulted by Matthews long after Hinge had been put on notice about Matthews.
"Hinge's product is defective in that it recklessly matches innocent people with criminals and fails to exclude abusive users or to warn people of the risks that other users can pose," said Goldberg.
Matthews is facing 16 felony counts relating to dates with women he met on Hinge and another dating app. His lawyer, Douglas Cohen, has said Matthews is innocent and is merely facing allegations. Matthews is being held without bond in the Denver jail.
In 2020, one woman who met Matthews via Hinge said she had a small amount to drink at his home in the Uptown neighborhood before blacking out. She said she woke up naked on the floor of his home and that a rape test later showed she had sexual intercourse.
She reported the incident to Hinge on Sept. 29, 2020 and Hinge acknowledged receiving her report saying, "It is currently being addressed and acted on by our team.. we'll be taking immediate steps," said the Hinge email, obtained by CBS News Colorado.
Four months later, the woman again emailed Hinge to say the site had again "matched" her with Matthews who apparently still had a profile on Hinge. "This is the second time I am reporting this. I was raped and subsequently hospitalized after a first date with an individual I met and communicated with via Hinge. He still exists within your ecosystem," wrote the woman, "and is posing as a potential threat to other women within the Hinge community."
Hinge responded to her email saying that they had "permanently banned" Matthews after the first incident was reported the previous September. An administrator from the app wrote that "It appears he created a new account using completely different login credentials. We have now permanently banned that account and taken additional steps to ensure that he permanently stays off Hinge."
But CBS News Colorado found that even after that, other women said they met Matthews through a Hinge profile in 2021, 2022 and 2023, oblivious to the previous reports. Several of those women now say Matthews drugged them during dates and in some cases, sexually assaulted them.
"There is strong evidence in the media already... that Hinge was on notice of this dangerous user," said Goldberg. "Hinge ultimately did the matching and so the act of matching an innocent person with a known serial predator should create some responsibility on the app."
"The prior knowledge that has been published already makes this a very compelling legal case. Any product manufacturer should be held responsible for the injuries that their product caused", said Goldberg.
Kayla Whaling, a spokesperson for Hinge's parent company, Match Group, said, "Any accounts associated with this person during this time period were either immediately removed at sign up or he was banned immediately following a report from a user."
Whaling did not address how Matthews was then able to maintain a presence on Hinge well after the company says he was "permanently banned," despite repeated questioning from CBS News Colorado. Whaling said the app uses "automated tools and human moderation systems to proactively remove an account."
Goldberg said, "If they don't have the capability to identify repeated abusive users then they've released a dangerous product into commerce and we don't want dangerous products in circulation. They certainly have the ability to create technology to identify abusers."
"People have a false sense of safety these companies are actually managing their app and excluding abusive users," said Goldberg.
