DENVER — A coalition of law firms filed a lawsuit against the dating app Hinge after a Denver cardiologist was convicted of using the app to find, drug and rape women over the span of several years.
Stephen Matthews is currently serving the maximum 158-year sentence at the Crowley County Correctional Facility after his 2024 conviction on 35 counts, which included multiple sexual assault charges and second-degree assault (drugging) in connection with the drugging and sexual assaults of nearly a dozen women. Denver7 sat in on his sentencing hearing, where we heard from several of the victims and their loved ones about the long-lasting impacts.
"I let your actions eat me alive for years," one woman told Matthews in court in 2024.
"I'm never going to be able to remember, but I'm also never going to be able to forget," another woman said.
Crime
Stephen Matthews case: Drugging, rape victims applaud sentencing of 158 years
Six survivors of his crimes are part of a new lawsuit, and they are represented by C.A. Goldberg, PLLC, Gerash Steiner, P.C., Dormer Harpring, LLC, and Shafner Injury Law. They claim that Hinge — a dating app owned by Match Group that also owns Tinder — ignored clear and long-standing warning signs that Matthews was a predator. Of the six victims, five connected with Matthews on Hinge and one connected on Tinder. All were drugged and raped by him, the lawsuit reads.
"This is a lawsuit against the world’s largest online dating monopoly for knowingly recommending serial rapist Dr. Stephen Matthews to women on its platforms, who he then drugged and raped," the first line of the suit reads.
The lawsuit was filed in Denver County District Court. It names the defendants as IAC, Inc., Match Group (a company spun-off from IAC), Hinge, Tinder and Matthews.
It claims that Hinge began receiving complaints about Matthews drugging and raping women in September 2020. One woman said she met Matthews at a park on Sept. 28, 2020, walked to his apartment and accepted a drink from him that tasted "off," the lawsuit reads. Later, she woke up naked on his floor. A rape exam confirmed she had been assaulted, she made a report to Hinge, and Hinge Trust & Safety acknowledge the report and said it was "taking immediate steps," according to the lawsuit. The company said it permanently banned Matthews that same day.
Three months after the victim had reported Matthews, he popped up on her app again. She reported him a second time, warning the company of the threat, and Hinge claimed he had been “permanently banned," but he had made a new account, so the company took “additional steps to ensure that he permanently stays off Hinge," the law firm said. Hinge's website claims to have "a no-tolerance policy for abusers" and a range of tools to monitor for abusers and remove those individuals.
"However, Hinge did not 'permanently ban' Matthews," the lawsuit reads. "In fact, Hinge did the opposite by continuing to welcome and promote Matthews as a member. Upon information and belief, Hinge did not take any additional steps to ensure Matthews 'permanently stays off Hinge.' After knowing Matthews drugged and raped its members, Hinge continued to recommend him to scores of women, whom he then drugged and raped. Hinge also recommended scores of innocent women to Matthews so he could pick and choose his next victims to drug and rape."
Matthews remained active on the Hinge app — as well as Tinder — for the following three years, over which he continued to drug and rape women he met through the apps, the lawsuit reads.
He was using the same name, photo, job description and phone number, according to the law firms.
The dating apps continued to recommend Matthews to the victims — now the plaintiffs in this lawsuit — as a "standout" match, the suit reads.
“I matched with Stephen Matthews on Hinge. I thought I was safe. I thought he was who he said he was. I woke up in a nightmare. I woke up with injuries I will never forget,” one survivor said in a press release. “I learned later that other women had lived the same horror. Hinge had the chance to stop him. Hinge could have protected us. I want this lawsuit to stand for every woman who trusted a dating platform that promised safety and gave her danger instead.”
Matthews was arrested on March 27, 2023 after a woman reported he had drugged and sexually assaulted her during a date. In May 2023, nine more women came forward with similar stories and additional charges were filed.
"The number of Matthews’ known victims is believed to be in the dozens, but the actual number could easily reach into the hundreds," the lawsuit reads.
Lawyer Carrie Goldberg, founder of C.A. Goldberg, said all the details in the lawsuit show a "catastrophic failure of basic safety."
Hinge confirmed it had received the complaint from September 2020 and said it had banned him, she said, but then continued to recommend him to other women.
“This was not a mystery. This was not a glitch," Goldberg said. "This was a corporate choice, and our clients paid the price.”
Dan Gerash, attorney at Gerash Steiner, P.C., echoed these thoughts as well, saying that Matthews used his status as a cardiologist to gain access to women and drug them.
“But none of this was unpredictable or invisible. Hinge had the data, the signals, and the responsibility to intervene. Hinge failed," Gerash said. "Our lawsuit is designed to force change on a company that should have acted long before these women were harmed.”
The lawsuit also claims more widespread problems across Match Group's apps, saying that "Match Group has become a multi-billion-dollar behemoth that is fully aware of its defective design which inadequately responds to and prevents members raping members." Rapists know that the company does not have an effective method to ban them across platforms, the document continues, and allows predators to create new accounts using the same phone number and photos as their banned accounts.
"Hinge is a defective product in that banned users can easily create a new profile," the lawsuit reads.
In addition, the lawsuit reads that a person who commits assault can "unmatch" from a victim, which then removes the victim's access to their messages and profile, making it difficult to report the crime to Hinge or police.
The six plaintiffs on this lawsuit have suffered and will continue to suffer due to Matthews' criminal actions, the lawsuit reads. As such, they are demanding a jury trial, economic damages from 2024's trial, and all compensatory, economic and consequential damages.
The document listed out several claims for relief:
- Strict product liability – defective design of Hinge
- Strict product liability – defective design of Tinder
- Strict product liability – failure to warn
- Negligence
- Promissory Estoppel (used to protect somebody who relies on the promise of another with no actual contract)
- Negligent misrepresentation
- Breach of express warranty and/or implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for particular purpose
- Sexual battery
- Battery
- Violation of Colorado Consumer Protection Act
- Unjust enrichment
- Negligence per se
- Trafficking
Denver7 reached out to Hinge for comment on the lawsuit, but have not yet heard back.
