SANTA MONICA – On Friday, March 18, 2022, Michael Roe-Chien Hsu pled guilty to the violation of Penal Code Section 289(e) or an act of sexual penetration where the female victim was prevented from resisiting by any intoxicating or anestheic substance, or any controlled substance, said the Santa Monica Police Department. 

Back on May 16, 2016, Hsu and a female were dining at the Fig Restaurant in Santa Monica, California. A witness, Monica Kenyon, saw Hsu put something in the female’s drink when she left the table to go to the bathroom. Kenyon was dining with two friends, Sonia Ulrich and Marla Salazar, who she told of the incident. 

“He pulled her glass toward him, kind of awkwardly, then he took out a little black vial. He opened it up and dropped something in. Then he tried to play it cool, like checking his phone and hiding the vial in his hand and then trying to bring it back down shyly,” Kenyon said according to a Facebook post by Ulrich. 

Kenyon, Ulrich and Salazar decided to let the female victim know what had happened.

“I got up to find her in the bathroom and tell her,” Ulrich said in the Facebook post. “[To] warn her. Tell her to get up and leave this creep. Make him drink it. Something,” Ulrich added. 

Ulrich approached the female victim in the bathroom to tell her: “Oh my god,” the victim said in response to her. After a short exchange, the victim revealed to Ulrich that Hsu is her “best friend,” a co-worker and someone she has known for a year and a half. 

The three witnesses let the server and manager of the restaurant know what had happened, who then notified security. 

Once she returned to the table, Hsu apparently tried to get the victim to sip wine from her glass. After 40 minutes, the waiter delayed Hsu from getting the bill to allow SMPD officers to arrive and apprehend Hsu. 

Fig restaurant security apparently reviewed the camera footage and caught the incident on tape and called the police –  this led to his arrest.

According to a statement released by the SMPD, Hsu had three vials on him that later tested positive for MDMA and melatonin. An electronic search warrant of his cellphone later revealed images and videos of Hsu penetrating the victim in an incapacitated state at various stages of their friendship to dating relationship. 

As of March 18, 2022, Hsu pled guilty to the violation of Penal Code Section 289(e) and Hsu also admitted factors in aggravation. 

HSU must register as a Sex Offender pursuant to Penal Code 290 for lifetime and will serve time in jail.