Charge dropped in drugging of Olympic ice dancer Oksana Grishuk
Prosecutors decide that there's not enough evidence to go on with the case against James Halstead, who was accused of slipping a 'date rape' pill into a glass of wine.
Claiming insufficient evidence, Orange County prosecutors today dropped the felony charge against a man accused of drugging an Olympic ice dancer during an April business meeting in an attempt to sexually assault her.
James R. Halstead, a Santa Ana insurance salesman, was in a Laguna Niguel courtroom for his scheduled arraignment when prosecutors announced that they were dropping the case.
"Based upon the totality of all the evidence we have received, we do not believe we could prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt," said Susan Kang Schroeder, public affairs counsel with the Orange County district attorney's office.
Halstead, 61, faced one felony count of unlawfully administering Olympic ice dancer Oksana "Pasha" Grishuk a "narcotic, anesthetic, and intoxicating agent" with the intent to commit sexual assault. He could have faced three years in prison.
Grishuk, 36, discovered a pill in the bottom of her glass of red wine during an April 12 dinner meeting with Halstead at the St. Regis Resort Monarch Beach in Dana Point. The two met to discuss plans for a vitamin and clothing business, authorities said. The two-time gold medal winner had known Halstead for about two years, said Orange County Sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino.
The pair had a drink in the hotel lounge, which Grishuk finished. Then while in a hotel restaurant at dinner, she began to feel nauseated and shaky, Amormino said. The Aliso Viejo resident noticed a pill clouding her wine, notified security and was taken to a hospital, where she stayed briefly. Tests determined that the pill was similar to a commonly used date-rape drug.
"It was a weak case to begin with," said Halstead's attorney, Michael Molfetta, adding that Halstead never had unobserved access to Grishuk's wine glass.
According to Molfetta, traces of incriminating drugs did not show up in tests of Grishuk's blood. He characterizes the pair's relationship as romantic, citing phone and hotel bills and text messages as evidence.
In the early 1990s, Halstead was put on probation for bilking investors out of more than $1 million in a scheme to sell crude oil and German bank shares.
He is also named in civil lawsuits stemming from an investment scheme in which his attorney, an Irvine securities lawyer, is criminally accused of swindling tens of millions of dollars from investors.
susannah.rosenblatt@latimes.com
