Two former San Benito High School students who were part of a
clique called the
”
Party Girls
”
were involved in trying to extort $2 million from a missing
Hollister multimillionaire who may have been killed in a plane
crash over the Cascades last week, according to the man’s defense
team.
Hollister – Two former San Benito High School students who were part of a clique called the “Party Girls” were involved in trying to extort $2 million from a missing Hollister multimillionaire who may have been killed in a plane crash over the Cascades last week, according to the man’s defense team.
The search for Rocky Stewart, 45, and his 46-year-old passenger Scott Smith of San Francisco was suspended Sunday after his Czechoslovakian fighter-trainer jet apparently went down over the Cascade mountain range. Subsequently, it was revealed that Stewart is being investigated by the Hollister Police Department for alleged sexual misconduct with a minor.
But Stewart’s defense team – which includes high-profile San Diego attorney Kerry Steigerwalt and others who had met with local police about the investigation – claims the allegations stemmed from an elaborate extortion scheme concocted by two Hollister girls and three Hollister men last year. One of the girls was 17 years old at the time, attending San Benito High School and was the leader of the Party Girls, according to a member of Stewart’s defense team who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Stewart’s defenders paint a picture of the group working together to bilk the former Oracle vice president. They say that Stewart, who lived in an exclusive neighborhood on Cienega Road, got involved with the Party Girls through a friend, had sex with one who was a minor and was later threatened with exposure unless he paid them $2 million.
San Benito County District Attorney John Sarsfield, whose office was assisting the police in the investigation, said his office was beginning to delve into the alleged extortion when Stewart disappeared.
“That’s what we were trying to figure out, but it’s not at all clear that’s what was going on,” Sarsfield said. “I believe the police, in their investigation, tend to think he was not being extorted. It was very complicated, there were lots of people involved.”
Sarsfield confirmed the defense team’s assertion that one of the girls involved could still face prosecution for filing a false police report against Stewart.
Hollister police began investigating Stewart in March after several Hollister girls came forward with allegations that Stewart had raped them, according to the defense team source. Police won’t comment on the details of the allegations or the case itself because they still consider it an open investigation, said Police Chief Jeff Miller.
But the defense team source laid out a bizarre scenario explaining that the Party Girls are made up of nine girls, some who now attend Gavilan Community College and some who are not in school. Six of them made allegations against Stewart, the defense source said.
Stewart first saw the girls in September of last year when they showed up at the Hollister home of one of Stewart’s friends whom he had known about a year, the defense source said. Stewart was not introduced to the girls at that time, he said.
Stewart didn’t see the Party Girls again until February, when they attended a party at Stewart’s friend’s home with Stewart, his 31-year-old friend and two other Hollister males in their 20s, the source said. The 17-year-old leader of the clique, another 18-year-old San Benito High School student and another girl over the age of 18 were at the party, he said. The source said Stewart believed all of the girls were of age.
One of the girls brought cocaine to the party, he said.
“Rocky (had used drugs in the past) but he wasn’t a frequent user, not even,” he said. “He did not do drugs with the girls.”
The member of the defense team said that night Stewart paid the three girls $100 each to “prance around” in duct tape – some had underwear on under the duct tape, but he didn’t know if any of them were naked.
Stewart also paid one of the girls who was 19 years old an undisclosed amount of money for oral sex, the source said.
Stewart did not have sex with the 17-year-old that night, but the source said he did have consensual sex with her sometime in early March.
On March 17, Stewart was at his friend’s Hollister home eating pizza when three of the Party Girls came to the house and the 17-year-old girl Stewart had had sex with tried to convince him to give her money to rent a $3,500-a-month house located in the unincorporated county area, the source said. The girls’ parents had thrown them out, and Stewart told them he would help them get into the house but would not make monthly payments, the source said.
A little later that night, at about 8:45pm, three Hollister males between the ages of 21 and 24 who were boyfriends of the girls came to the house and assaulted Stewart, the source said. They knocked Stewart unconscious, causing a cut above his eye, kicked him and then fled, the source said.
When Stewart regained consciousness he called police and made a report, which the source was citing during an interview.
The source said Hollister police went to the home of the main assailant but did not arrest him, and a short while later Stewart received a phone call from the 21-year-old Hollister resident who led the attack on him, the source said.
“Rocky gets a phone call from the boyfriend of the (17-year-old girl) who tells him, the cops are after me, and if you tell the cops I’m gonna tell them that you had sex with my girlfriend who’s only 17,” he said. “That was the first time Rocky knew she was 17. Then he calls him back and says, ‘guess what, she’s telling the cops right now’.”
Over the next week the girls called Stewart six or eight times attempting to extort $2 million, and promised they would not talk to police if he paid them, according to the source.
“When they called up and started talking about it, he started taping the conversations,” he said. “In the conversations the girls are telling him how they want the checks made out, various sums so that the IRS doesn’t get involved.”
The source said the defense provided the police and the District Attorney’s office with the audio tapes. However, Sarsfield said the audio tapes didn’t provide concrete evidence of extortion.
“It’s difficult to prove those conversations without talking to anyone involved,” he said. “We were going to set up a conversation with Rocky… sometime next month.”
Police Chief Jeff Miller wouldn’t comment on the alleged extortion, but said the case has a “number of facets.”
The defense team source said Stewart could have been facing felony sex with a minor, felony soliciting sex from a minor and misdemeanor soliciting sex, but that the police department hadn’t arrested Stewart because “there was enough probable cause to believe it didn’t happen, also.”
“It was going nowhere,” he said. “It would have been ripped apart.”
Stewart’s attorney, Kerry Steigerwalt, was unavailable for comment Thursday.
During a meeting with members of Stewart’s defense team, two Hollister police detectives and the district attorney, the source said Sarsfield suggested police investigate at least one of the girls for filing a false police report of one of the alleged rapes.
“It appears one person did that, but I’m not going to characterize what happened,” Sarsfield said. “But we still believed (other girls) had legitimate complaints. Just because one person lies doesn’t mean all people lie.”
Sarsfield said one of the girls could still be charged for filing a false police report, even if Stewart is deceased or never found.
Miller would not comment about whether the police department is investigating one of the girls for filing a false report.
Erin Musgrave covers public safety for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or [email protected]
