Man faces charges of attempted murder in Florida, sexual assault in Colorado

Former Doctor Arrested After Gunfight with U.S. Marshals in Florida

The former doctor who was arrested Monday after starting a gunfight with U.S. Marshals in Florida was wanted in Colorado on sexual assault charges, according to Mesa County court records.

Thomas Steffens, a 72-year-old former neurosurgeon, is accused of drugging and sexually assaulting an unidentified victim in Grand Junction earlier this year, according to his arrest affidavit.

The victim told Grand Junction police officers that they had walked to a restaurant near their home on Jan. 25 to watch the Broncos game, according to the affidavit. The victim said their memory of that night was foggy and that they didn’t remember anything after the restaurant, where their phone showed they stayed for nearly four hours.

At one point, the victim left their beer unattended on the bar while using the restroom, the affidavit stated.

Cameras outside the restaurant captured the victim and a man, later identified as Steffans, walking through the parking lot after leaving. The victim stumbled several times in the video and was being led by the arm.

A bartender at the restaurant told police that the two were both there when he arrived for his shift, but they weren’t sitting together until later. Steffens “was being extremely forward in a sexual manner” and was trying to get the victim to kiss him and come home with him.

Several of the bartender’s coworkers refused to serve Steffens because he had been inappropriate with them before, the bartender told police.

The next thing the victim remembered after the restaurant was waking up completely naked in Steffens’ bed with a bright ring light shining at them and a laptop on the bed, almost like the room was set up for filming, the victim told police.

As the victim searched for clothes, a man they said they “never would have gone home with” walked into the room, police wrote in the affidavit. That man, whom the victim described as “gross and creepy and yucky”, insisted on driving the victim back home, despite her protests.

The man dropped the victim off near their house, but made the victim call his phone so he had their number before letting them out of the car, the affidavit stated. That phone number was registered to Steffens.

“I don’t want to talk to you anymore,” the victim wrote in a text to Steffens. “I’m not trying to be mean. I just don’t think it’s a gentleman thing to have sex with a drunk (redacted). I blacked out.”

“You did not blackout,” Steffens responded, according to the affidavit. “Don’t start building some (expletive) case against me.”

The victim filed a report with the Grand Junction Police Department on Jan. 28, according to court records. A warrant was issued for his arrest on Feb. 25.

When officers searched Steffens’ car, they found a container holding both breath mints and unidentified red pills, according to the affidavit. The search continued in the man’s home, where police found a cup in the kitchen sink filled with clear liquid, a white granulated substance and a spoon.

An additional bag of red pills was found in a separate car parked in Steffens’ driveway, police wrote in the affidavit. The pills and white powder were submitted for testing, but those results were not available on Thursday.