A woman told a judge Wednesday she was sexually assaulted by the owner of a La Jolla Italian restaurant in a 2009 incident, but could not recall much about it after blacking out from too much alcohol.
“I knew something had happened. I was unsure what happened,” she said, adding she was sure she did not consent to sexual activity.
The woman testified in the preliminary hearing of Daniel Dorado, 59, and testimony from other women was expected to continue into Friday before San Diego Superior Court Judge Court Judge Michael Groch.
Dorado, the owner of Voce Del Mare which closed after his March 28 arrest, is suspected of sexually assaulting five women in a total of 25 charges. He has pleaded not guilty.
Some of the charges allege he drugged the women to unconsciousness and they were not able to consent to sexual activity.
The woman cried briefly as she recalled the circumstances of meeting Dorado in what was supposed to be a job interview. She said she had worked for him over the phone to promote a car dealership but had not met him until Dec. 23, 2009.
She recalled drinking champagne and wine with Dorado but became ill in another restaurant bathroom.
“I felt very impaired. My vision was blurred,” said the woman. “I was not feeling right.”
“My next memory was waking up in a dark room,” said the woman, who said she discovered she was on a bed wearing only an unhooked bra.
She recalled feeling pain and panic, with no memory of how she got into Dorado’s home in Solana Beach. She said she asked Dorado “what happened.”
“He told me I had too much to drink,” said the woman.
She said she recalled seeing her phone and the time of 11:50 p.m. before its battery died. She said she first met up with Dorado at 4 p.m. He drove her back to where her car was parked outside a Starbucks where they originally met.
The job interview never happened with little discussion of business, she said.
When she got home, she said told her husband she felt she had been sexually assaulted. She said she was bleeding and he called sheriff’s deputies. A male deputy arrived, but she didn’t feel comfortable telling him “the whole story.” She said she showered, and later went to a Planned Parenthood office to talk with a nurse. She said she turned over the clothing she wore.
Dorado remains in the George Bailey Detention Facility on $900,000 bail. Deputy District Attorney Katherine Flaherty said the charges include rape and oral copulation of an unconscious person, sexual battery, and assault with intent to commit rape. The other victims were assaulted in 2014, 2015, 2017, and in January of this year, she said with “all of the victims [telling] very similar stories,” said Flaherty.
The restaurant was located at 5721 La Jolla Boulevard in the Bird Rock area. Dorado denies all charges.