On Christmas Eve of last year, a 24-year-old New Jersey woman ventured out for dinner with Andrew Gallo, a suburban Philadelphia man she had met through a dating site. Gallo, 40, was almost twice her age; she was so inexperienced with alcohol that she had never tasted a margarita.
By Kim Bellware
Detectives now believe the granules on the rim of the glass were actually methamphetamine.
Gallo early Wednesday was arrested and charged in Pennsylvania with five counts of rape by causing impairment, six counts of drug possession and four counts of strangulation, as well as counts related to corrupting and furnishing alcohol to minors, according to the criminal complaint.
“This is a young woman’s worst nightmare,” Bucks County District Attorney Jennifer Schorn said during a Wednesday news conference announcing the charges. Schorn said Gallo secretly drugged his dates and “rendered them so impaired, they were unable to consent to anything, let alone sexual acts.”
Gallo is being held at Bucks County Correctional Facility on $5 million bond. It was unclear Wednesday whether Gallo had a lawyer or how he intends to plea.
Investigators said the alleged assaults were a part of a pattern for Gallo, who usually found women through SugarDaddiesMeet.com, a dating site that bills itself as “a platform for generous men and attractive women to form honest relationships,” while using the name “DREWSTER420.” According to the criminal complaint, Gallo would give his victims alcohol secretly laced with mood- and perception-altering drugs like methamphetamine, ecstasy and cocaine, then sexually assault them, often choking the women to the point of unconsciousness.
The alleged victims ranged in age from 17 to 30, and all described in police reports that they felt strange after drinking something Gallo gave them, usually alcohol poured from wine or liquor bottles that were already open, or from drinks Gallo mixed for them. The women similarly described feeling unlike themselves and feeling unable to stop Gallo during his assaults.
Some of the women who had previously tried drugs later recognized similar effects from drinks Gallo gave them. Others described themselves as moderate drinkers who didn’t use drugs and couldn’t understand the effects. Police records detailed the women reporting feelings of a burning sensation in their stomach, involuntary bodily movements like a grinding jaw, nausea and hyper-arousal; one woman reported being unable to sleep for seven straight days.
The symptoms prompted the women to seek hospitalization in most cases; toxicology reports from those visits helped investigators confirm what the women had been drugged with. The accuser who first met Gallo on Christmas Eve later learned that she had been drugged when she received the results of a drug test she had taken to start a new job.
During Wednesday’s news conference, Schorn praised the women who came forward with their stories and made it clear they were not to blame.
Stefan Turkheimer, vice president of policy at RAINN, an anti-sexual assault organization, praised Schorn’s office for how it has worked with accusers; as a former prosecutor, Turkheimer said that level of respect for accusers was not so common even a decade ago.
“This is something you want a prosecutor to say in this moment,” Turkheimer said of the message that accusers should not feel blame or shame. “You really don’t want people to feel alone.”
Investigators said they think there may be more women who haven’t come forward in the Gallo case and encouraged them to contact police if they have had contact with him and feel that they might have been drugged.
Bristol Township Police Chief Robert Coulton on Wednesday shared this message to accusers:
“We hope that if there are any other victims out there, please come forward so you can have justice as well.”
