DALLAS — Dallas Police confirm the department is investigating after two women filed a report, claiming that they were drugged at a nightclub in Dallas' Deep Ellum neighborhood.
Breyanna Knox and Nakia Robertson, both 29 years old, said they went to Harlowe MXM on Saturday, Nov. 25 for a girls night out. They said they were in line to get into the club before midnight when a man who was working the door asked them "how bad" they wanted to get in.
The women said it was cold and rainy outside, so they expressed urgency in wanting to get inside. They said they were told he would let them in if they "showed love" to the bartender by ordering some drinks, to which they agreed and said they had already planned to buy drinks at the bar.
Once inside, the pair said a bartender poured them multiple shots of alcohol and wouldn't take their credit cards when they offered to pay.
After a couple of drinks, the women said they began to feel inebriated and sick.
"Off of three shots, I should not have felt the way I felt," Knox said during a press conference held Thursday by the Next Generation Action Network in Dallas. Both women attended with their families.
Knox and Robertson said they each had to call friends to come pick them up from the bar because of the state they were in, which they said didn't make sense based on the number of drinks they'd consumed.
Following Thursday's press conference, Knox showed a document from a toxicology report she received from a hospital she went to following the incident. The report showed that amphetamine was found in her system.
Both women are single mothers and got emotional when discussing the possibility of being put in a dangerous situation.
“It really hurts me, the fact that you can’t even feel comfortably going out at night to just have a nice time out with your bestfriend… and scared that you might not make it home to your children," Robertson said. "That hurts, knowing that I could have not made it home to them."
Dallas Police confirmed to WFAA that the women reported an assault and that the "preliminary investigation determined the victims went to a local hospital after going to a business, consuming beverages and becoming ill." The department said the investigation is ongoing.
Knox and Robertson said they went back to Harlowe on Sunday, Nov. 26 and spoke with a manager who said someone from the restaurant would follow up with them, but the women said they had not heard from the restaurant on Thursday afternoon.
Harlowe MXM is owned by Cindy and Jim Hughes. The family also owns Henry's Majestic, and they were the original owners of Bread Winner's Cafe until they sold the Dallas staple last year.
The owners provided this statement to WFAA:
"Since being notified Sunday we have been diligently investigating these allegations. Our contracted security company and management team have been interviewing staff, viewing video and trying to come to some sort of conclusion as to what may have happened. We have operated restaurants in Dallas for thirty years, and have never experienced a situation remotely resembling this. I assure you we are as committed to learning the truth as Ms. Robertson and Ms. Knox, and to the extent we’re able we will assist law enforcement in helping them get to the bottom of what happened."