Home : Celebrity Justice : Ice Dancer Drugging Suspect Skates

Celebrity Justice
Ice Dancer Drugging Suspect Skates

Posted Jun 9th 2008 1:59PM by TMZ Staff

O.C. prosecutors say they don't have enough evidence to make charges stick against a SoCal man suspected of doping the drink of an Olympic gold medal winning ice dancer.


Prosecutors charged businessman James Halstead last month after Oksana "Pasha" Grishuk says she found a half-dissolved pill -- later determined to be GHB -- in the bottom of her glass of wine during a business meeting at a local hotel.

He had been scheduled for arraignment today.

Story developing ...

Tags: GHB, Ice Dancer, IceDancer, Oksana Pasha Grishuk, OksanaPashaGrishuk

Comments [13]
SHARE |
4ie6

Reader Comments

(Page 1 of 1)

1.
forget the FIRST
routine already;

please STOP it !

Posted at 2:11PM on Jun 9th 2008 by tossedsalad

2. TMZ...........Not many people writing on your site ............

Posted at 7:46AM on Jun 10th 2008 by tmz not many writing on your site anymore ...what's with that ?

3. WTF? There goes the OLYMPIC'S dude's. THIS DIPSTICK JUST MIGHT GO INTERNATIONAL. WHAT A CREEPOZOID!!!

Posted at 2:14PM on Jun 9th 2008 by MYSTERY SHOPPER IN CALI

4. Anybody caught doping someone should be put on a chaingang for life.

Posted at 2:24PM on Jun 9th 2008 by jFp

5. SHE FAKED THIS WHOLE THING.

I KNOW OKSANA ALL TOO WELL. SHE IS A CYCO WITH A CAPITAL NUTS!!!!

SHE IS VERY GOOD AT BRINGING ATTENTION TO HERSELF WHEN SHE WANTS OR NEEDS IT.
SHE HAS BEEN INVOLVED WITH THE POLICE OVER FALSE ACCUSATIONS BEFORE AND THIS WILL NOT BE THE LAST.....

Posted at 3:26PM on Jun 9th 2008 by DUDE NEXT DOOR

6. The whole thing seems made-up, and always did.

Posted at 3:46PM on Jun 9th 2008 by vj-dj

7. She looks like Oksana Baiul in that picture.

Posted at 4:06PM on Jun 9th 2008 by wisegirl

8. That bastard needs to wake up someday in a strange hotel with a missing kidney.

Posted at 4:47PM on Jun 9th 2008 by jFp

9. It's common knowledge that 'Pasha' (she called herself the 'good Oxana' during the Olympics) had the gold medal even before she entered the rink. A gold medal performance earlier???? in private???? with the judges?????

Posted at 5:10PM on Jun 9th 2008 by Dorothy Ann Gardner

10. I have read different versions. One says she did have it in her blood stream, but HIS lawyer says no. More to come?

Posted at 2:47PM on Jun 10th 2008 by xander crews

11. Looks like Oksana Baiul to me, too. I don't know this Grishuk person, but I know of Baiul from way back, and when I saw the picture, I thought, "Uh, yep. TMZ screwed it up again."

Posted at 10:57PM on Jun 9th 2008 by Me

12. I believe that she totally faked the whole thing! Just check out the news reports regarding the dismissal of the case:

An attorney for James R. Halstead, 61, said the district attorney agreed to dismiss one felony count of administering a drug last week. The charge was formally voided at what was to be an arraignment hearing Monday in Orange County Superior Court, said attorney Michael Molfetta.

District attorney's spokeswoman Susan Schroeder said that after an independent investigation and talks with the defense attorney, prosecutors realized they could not prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. Toxicology tests on Grishuk's blood showed no trace of the drugs, she said.

"There was no corroborating evidence that would indicate who actually ... put the substance in the drink and we just couldn't prove who did it," Schroeder said. "There are many, many elements that we looked at."

Molfetta, the defense attorney, called the case a "piece of junk" and said that two tests of Grishuk's blood came back negative for Nimetazepam. He also said that Halstead and Grishuk had had a lengthy romantic relationship and he had provided text messages, e-mails, telephone records and personal notes to the district attorney's office to prove it.

Grishuk denied a romantic relationship with Halstead during a news conference at the Sheriff's Department last month and repeated that denial in Monday's statement.

"They originally made a mistake in filing it and I think they corrected that mistake," Molfetta said of prosecutors. "I approached them. I said, 'This is not the way it looks, this woman is on a media tour.' It just struck me as being very, very odd and very, very suspicious."

Halstead said Grishuk wanted to marry him, but he was going through a divorce and told her no. He also said she wanted him to travel to Europe with her as her agent, but he refused.

"She got really upset with me because she said, 'Can't you find me a man with money who could take care of me?"' Halstead told The Associated Press by telephone. "She kept saying, 'Jim, I'm in love with you."'

Posted at 9:30AM on Jun 10th 2008 by Todd

13. I feel sorry for Grishuk's daughter.

The woman has serious psychlogical issues.

Grishuk is troubled and should be charged for her malicious false allegations.

Freaking ice-dancers!!!

Posted at 1:45PM on Jun 10th 2008 by Jeff