Hospital pharmacist charged after alleged date rape
TAMPA (FOX 13) - In the modern dating world, Tinder is one place people look for a potential mate. A swipe left or right can change your life, but for one woman in Tampa, things didn't go exactly as planned.
She matched with 27-year-old Robert Woods on the popular dating app.
He’s a pharmacist at St. Joseph's hospital, although the hospital says he is on administrative leave.
Woods was previously a pharmacy resident at Tampa General Hospital. His professional biography says, "he developed... a prospective pilot study to evaluate..." a substance combination for "adult procedural sedation" in the ER.
Tampa police say the two agreed to meet at the District Tavern in downtown Tampa.
While at the restaurant, the woman drank one beer and agreed to go to Woods’ apartment, which is in the same building, for a “party” he was having with his friends. Police say, when the woman arrived, no one else was inside the apartment.
The woman says Woods poured a shot of what he said was absinthe liquor and offered to play a game requiring her to catch a balloon without it hitting the ground.
Woods then spiked the balloon to the ground and, per the rules of the game, she had to drink the shot, she told police.
The victim says she stepped onto the balcony to smoke a cigarette but then blacked out, according to police.
She said the next thing she remembered was waking up naked in Woods’ bed. He told her they had intercourse, but she responded that she couldn’t recall it.
He allegedly said, “that’s OK,” and then Woods “had sex once again with the victim.”
The arrest document goes on to say she was still inebriated from whatever substance was in her system.
The victim went to the hospital the following morning, according to the documents.
She messaged Woods asking what substance he gave her, and he replied, “Are you alive?”
She responded, “barely alive.”
After that, Woods didn’t respond and deleted the woman from his Tinder account.
The victim said she later discovered two injection sites on her neck.
Woods was arrested on Saturday and charged with sexual battery.
When you meet someone online you really don't know much about them. You might think you do but you don't know much about them,” said Tampa PD spokesperson Steve Hegarty. “Always have signals with your friends, like if the date went bad, a good quick text [or] call to make up an excuse to leave safely.”
St. Joseph's Hospital says it is working with police and takes the allegations against Woods "very seriously."