A judge ordered a 36-year-old New York man held without bail yesterday on charges he allegedly drugged a woman's coffee with a sleeping pill and brought her back to his hotel room.
During a business meeting, Seung H. Han put a sleeping pill in a coffee he bought for the woman at a Cambridge Dunkin' Donuts, according to Han's defense attorney and prosecutors.
"The next thing she knew, she woke up in a hotel room," prosecutor Joseph Gentile told the court yesterday.
Gentile told the judge that prosecutors and police are investigating whether Han sexually assaulted the woman in his Waltham hotel room.
Han, of 11 Powells Lane, Old Westbury, N.Y., was arrested in Cambridge just before 3 a.m. on Sept. 14 on charges of drugging to kidnap and possession of a Class E drug. Han pleaded not guilty at his arraignment later that morning.
Han traveled to Cambridge from Long Island, N.Y., to meet the woman, who he had been corresponding with by e-mail about a job opportunity he was offering her, according to court testimony.
Han's defense lawyer, Thomas Brant, unsuccessfully argued that Han should be released on personal recognizance because he has never had a run-in with police since he moved to the United States from Korea 14 years ago.
"He's never even had a speeding ticket before," Brant said yesterday.
Brant called the whole incident a misunderstanding. Han had been taking sleeping pills to help him sleep after the birth of his 4-month-old baby and he meant to put the pill in his own coffee, according to Brant. Brant said Han called the woman the next day to apologize once he realized his mistake.
But Gentile balked at the suggestion that the case was merely a bizarre mix-up. Gentile said the prescription for the sleeping pills were in Han's grandmother's name and Han allegedly only admitted to having the sleeping pills in his car after Cambridge Police repeatedly questioned him.
After Han's arrest, a judge issued an order to impound court records in the case, sealing all documents with allegations of rape and sexual assaults, to protect the identity of the victim.
Han is next scheduled to appear in court Oct. 19 for a probable cause hearing.
