Breitbart has video of this awful story from California where 61-year-old James Halstead tried to drug former Olympic gold medalist Oksana Grishuk during what she believed was a business meeting to discuss opportunities to use her as a spokesmodel for a line of vitamins. An arrest warrant has been issued for Halstead who is at this point on the lam:
SANTA ANA, Calif.—Former Olympic ice dancer Oksana “Pasha” Grishuk said Friday she began to feel shaky, her lips went numb and she feared she might die after consuming a drink authorities say a man meeting with her for dinner had spiked with a date-rape drug.
The two-time Olympic gold medalist said James R. Halstead of Santa Ana encouraged her to order a drink as they waited for a dinner table at the posh St. Regis Monarch Beach Hotel in Orange County on April 12. He then encouraged her to finish it, she said, but she only took a few sips before the two moved to the dining room.
Halstead, 61, was charged Wednesday with one felony count of administering a drug to Grishuk with the intent of having sex with her. He remained at large Friday, his whereabouts unknown.
A message left at Halstead’s home was not immediately returned. David Lee Casterline, an attorney who has represented him in civil cases, did not immediately return a call for comment and it couldn’t be determined if he has retained a criminal attorney.
It goes without saying if you run into Halstead don’t go out for drinks with him.
Halstead has a shady history Grishuk apparently didn’t know about including a conviction for fraud in the 90s and was he just named, but not charged, in a case against his former lawyer and business partner Jeanne Rowzee who stole millions of dollars from clients in an investment scheme:
Jeanne M. Rowzee, an Irvine securities lawyer accused of bilking scores of individuals of more than $20 million in a sophisticated investment scheme, was arrested at her home Tuesday on federal wire fraud charges.
FBI agents picked up Rowzee at 2:55 p.m., hours after she agreed in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana to pay about $66 million in compensatory and punitive damages to plaintiffs in a civil lawsuit accusing her and Santa Ana insurance salesman James R. Halstead of taking their money.
[…]
The lawsuit is among at least half a dozen filed in state and federal courts accusing Rowzee and Halstead of promising investors returns of as much as 40% in an investment strategy usually reserved for hedge funds and other major Wall Street players.
More than 80 investors allege that the pair took in tens of millions of dollars from 2004 to 2006 but invested none of it in the private investment in public equities, or PIPEs, they touted.
FBI Special Agent Brad Howard’s review of Rowzee’s financial records confirmed that, according to an affidavit he filed with her arrest warrant.
“Instead of investing the money as promised, Rowzee would use victims’ money to make phony investment return payments to other victims, for her own personal use, and for the personal use of others involved in the scheme,” he wrote.
He estimated there were 150 victims with total losses exceeding $20 million.
Rowzee is accused in the civil lawsuits of stashing much of the investors’ money in offshore banks, including $2 million she allegedly wired to a former client described as “a fugitive hiding in Brazil.”
Halstead allegedly blew millions of dollars on jewelry, frequent strip-club visits and two houses with panoramic views of Las Vegas, according to the suits. He also had a yen for top-end sports cars, including a 605-horsepower Porsche Carrera GT for which he paid $368,000, according to a dealership’s sales records.
Halstead, 61, has not been charged. He declined to comment on Rowzee’s arrest or whether prosecutors might also charge him.
“They are going to do what they’re going to do,” he said.
Since Rowzee has set up accounts for fugitives before, I assume Halstead has either fled, or is fleeing, the country to some nation where his former business partner set up an off shore account.
Looking down the barrel of federal charges, it looks like Halstead decided to rape Grishuk as his last hurrah in the States before taking off. I guess it pays to Google your business partners.
The drug he tried to use on Grishuk is Nimetazepan which is legal in Europe and Asia but banned here. I guess that’s a clue as to where he might be fleeing.
For your information, Oksana Grishuk was involved in a sexual relationship with James Halstead long before she accused him of drugging her drink. In fact they had sexual relations the night she met him in the parking lot of Maestro’s Rest. Charges were dropped because Mr. Halstead was able to prove that she had spent the night in a hotel with him previously (willingly), accepted gifts, and received thousands of dollars in cash via wire transfers. She also refused at first to be tested for the drug. When the authorities insisted, she tested negative – no drug in her system.
The night she made the accusations, she asked for money from Mr. Halstead and was refused. I know these things because I am Halstead’s ex-wife and have proof. Maybe you should check your facts before you publish such a damning article.
You can’t possibly be claiming that if you have had sex with a person previously you can’t rape them can you?
If Halstead is so awesome why are you his ex? Get lost.
You obviously believe everything you read – even from someone who does not know what they are talking about or even know any of the people involved. These are lies. I am an ex ,Rob, because of women like Oksana Grishuk who prey upon foolish, older men who have money.
I have known Halstead for 40 years, there is no way he would ever do this; she pursued him for the money and when she didn’t get what she wanted, she yelled rape. I have emails from a previous relationship of hers that she took to the cleaners.
Why are you prepared to believe internet crap like this when you don’t know anyone involved or any of the facts? – How would you like it if someone posted an outright lie about you on the internet? How would you feel if everyone assumed it to be the truth? Think about that before you assume what you’re reading has any truth in it.
What I believe is the prosecutor’s case against him. If you have these supposed emails release them.
Susan Hall is correct.
Oksana Grishuk is a lying shrew.
You obviously don’t get it – the prosecutor had NO CASE against him, no evidence whatsoever and that is why the case was dropped.
Suffice it to say that the evidence Mr. Halstead had proving that she was a liar about their relationship and the evidence brought forth by the man she was previously involved with were enough to convince the prosecutor that there was no case. The prosecutor has those emails and proof and she’s just lucky she wasn’t prosecuted for her malicious lies and wasting the prosecutors time.
Who are you anyway and and where are you from? And how can you be so naive as to believe everything you see on the internet?
So you’re saying that every person who beats a rap is innocent? Including O.J. Simpson, Micheal Jackson etc?
You’re naive. Let me guess, kindly ol’ James sends you some nice emails and gifts once in awhile? He tells you ALL the trouble in his life was caused by others or, even better, by his “too trusting” nature? He didn’t know what his business partners were up to, he was being a “father figure” to the victim, the victim “wanted” him for his money which was not of course stolen in a ponzi investment scheme. That’s pretty much what he told you isn’t it?
You, my dear, are a mark. A crook groupie desperate to metaphorically (and perhaps literally) put out for some cretin you saw o the web or met when you were depressed. You keep claiming I got my info “off the web” but as you can see I got them from the web presences of legitimate news agencies. So what are you saying? The L.A. Times made this up?
Come back after having some drinks with your friend and tell me how awesome he is.
Ha! Didn’t James Halstead plead out just recently to fraud? Is that the great guy you’re defending?
So what’s going on Susan, you start writing him letter in the joint and dreaming about the day he can slip something in your drink?
Rob Taylor, I think you are one of the investors, who obviously is pissed off that he lost his money.
No I never invest in anything except caned goods, shotguns and silver. But are you claiming those investors who were stolen from have no cause to be angry?
By all means, the investors have a right to be angry.
We’re talking about de-railing the facts regarding date rape, for which Mr. Halstead was exonerated.
* and by the way, Rob Taylor, speaking of victims, why don’t you show Susan a little bit of compassion?
No Mr. Halstead beat a rap. I don’t think, given his history and character, that he was innocent just that had he had a great lawyer.
And why should I show Hall “compassion” when she is defending a career degenerate? Is whatever victim hood status she’s claiming given a special right to not be disagreed with?
Halstead’s a scumbag, end of story.
I’m a “crook groupie”? What are you talking about? That doesn’t even make sense, I’ve known the man for forty years. Where do you get off calling someone you nothing about a “career degenerate”? You know nothing, you assume the worst, and make up totally false statements based on your twisted view. You’re great at name calling – too bad you can’t be bothered with the facts.
I’m not wasting any more time on this – you are unreasonable and you are the naive one if you believe the Los Angeles Times has never gotten anything wrong or that everyone accused of a crime must be guilty.
OJ and Michael Jackson actually went to trial because prosecutors thought they had enough evidence. In this case the charges were dropped because there was NO EVIDENCE to go to trial – because she lied about everything and they knew it.
People like you would rather believe the worst of everyone else because it must make you feel superior.
People that run a ponzi scheme to make money they blow on strippers and Sopranos style parties aren’t career degenerates?
remind me of how long a stretch he’ll be doing?
Rob Taylor: let me tell you…I’ve lost my job. I’m now losing my house and my car…while that Halstead is sitting on my tax dollar in jail having a roof over his head, breakfast, lunch and dinner and a tv (while my tv is being re-possessed). As a former investor who has had the money pulled out from under him, I ask you, who’s got the better deal now?!
He should have had all his assets seized and given to you.
Thank you. You should know, though, that Halstead has no assets.
Once again, who’s got the better deal?
My family and friends are wondering if this is the James Halstead that went to Robert E. Peary jr. high and lived in Gardena, Ca. as a boy?
We all lost track of him when his family moved to Palos Verdes, Ca.
Also, is he in jail ? His age would be right on .
Thank you,
Linda