Key facts surrounding the second liquor violation Adams cited are also in dispute. Here's what is incontroverted: On the night of May 3, Shelle Hatle went to the Ballroom around 6 p.m. She was to learn how to be a cocktail waitress by following around a friend who already worked at the club. Hatle was four weeks shy of her 21st birthday at the time.
After shadowing her friend for a couple of hours, Hatle was introduced to manager David Seven, who offered her a free drink. Hatle later testified that she told Seven she was only 20 years old, and that he told her that was no problem and gave her one of the plastic wristbands the Ballroom uses to designate a patron as being over 21. Seven testified that Hatle told him she was 21, but admitted to Judge Reed that he never asked her for identification.
Seven got Hatle a beer and the two grabbed a table. Over the next two hours, the two sat together talking and drinking. Seven ordered Hatle six more beers and two "kamikaze" shots (each of which contains a shot of vodka and citrus liqueurs) for a rough total of nine drinks, all of which were free. Hatle testified in the liquor violation hearing that she weighs 120 pounds. She also testified that Seven was ordering kamikazes for himself, but she wasn't sure how many he consumed.
The two sat in the pub talking and drinking until shortly after 11 p.m. when, Hatle testified, Seven asked her if she wanted to go to his office "to see some pictures of him with famous people and some pictures that David Koresh had drawn for him." She agreed. Once they were inside the office, Hatle said, Seven closed the door and kissed her. She testified that she returned the kiss, but afterward told him that she felt uncomfortable. She said that Seven then took off her clothes and told her to lie on the floor of his office, where he performed oral sex on her for a few minutes, then put on a condom and had sex with her.
According to a police report, Hatle told a police officer later that night that she never resisted Seven or tried to push him away. She told the officer that she was violently raped by an ex-boyfriend about a year ago, was scared, and decided to just "let him have what he wanted." At the hearing, however, she testified that Seven forced himself on her, and that there was a struggle, but she was too scared and drunk to defend herself.
"I couldn't effectively resist," she testified. "I was petrified, in shock, and I could barely speak or stand up."
Asked about the contradictions between her testimony and her statement to the police officer, Hatle said, "I was very intoxicated. [The officer] got as much out of me as he could." The police report noted that, at 1 a.m., Hatle appeared drunk and could not walk without assistance.
In his revocation memo, Adams wrote, "The Department finds it particularly offensive that a manager would induce a person under 21 years of age to overindulge in spirituous liquor, and in an inebriated state, seduce her in his locked office."
Seven testified that Hatle never resisted, either physically or verbally.
"I couldn't have raped her if someone put a gun to my head," he recently told New Times. "I really liked her. I thought we would be going out."
Seven provided New Times with results that, he claims, show he passed a lie-detector test in which he denied forcing himself on Hatle or using verbal coercion to persuade her to have sex with him.
After Hatle left Seven's office, she told two friends that Seven had just raped her. They took her to a nearby restaurant and called the police. When the police arrived, they interviewed Hatle and then Seven. Seven first told them he had only kissed Hatle in his office, then changed his story to say he had only given her oral sex. Then, after an officer searched the office and found a used condom, Seven said he had masturbated into the condom after performing oral sex on Hatle. Finally, he admitted to having sex with Hatle.
Seven was not arrested or charged with a crime that night, but his lies cost the Ballroom dearly in the liquor violation hearing. Reed ruled that his testimony was not credible, and found the Ballroom guilty of knowingly serving Hatle and not providing for her safety. Seven is still employed as a manager at the Ballroom.
"David made a bad judgment call, but I don't believe he raped that girl, and he's still a good manager," Torgeson says. The Ballroom's owner says he plans to appeal the revocation order "as high as I can take it if necessary."
The first level of appeal is the state liquor board, which will hear the matter sometime early next year. If the board upholds Adams' order, the next round would be fought in state superior court.
"I will never let this go," promises Torgeson. "I'm going to be like a pit bull on this one. I will never shake loose. We will not be closed down, and I will not rest until this is done.
