Bear drug rape case

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2002:

RESERVE, New Mexico– Former Hornocker Wildlife Institute
researcher Patrick Ryan, 51, convicted on July 23 of 36 criminal
charges including kidnapping, aggravated battery with a deadly
weapon, and 20 counts of rape, was due for sentencing as ANIMAL
PEOPLE went to press on October 8.
Ryan allegedly kept research assistant Jennifer Cashman (now
Lisignioli) heavily drugged for seven months in 1996-1997 by slipping
the animal tranquilizers ketamine and telazol into her food at a bear
research station in the Gila Wilderness. Both were assigned to the
station as part of a five-year study of the impact of hunting on
bears, commissioned by the New Mexico Dept. of Game and Fish.

After Cashman/Lisignioli was hospitalized for two weeks with
impaired coordination and blurred vision, having apparently ingested
more of the drugs for longer than anyone else on record, friends
investigating what they then believed was a severe case of carbon
monoxide poisoning found six hours of videotapes showing Ryan
sexually assaulting her while she was apparently unconscious.
Her subsequent civil suits against Ryan, Hornocker
officials, the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, and the drug
makers were settled out of court. The terms were not disclosed, and
the Hornocker Institute has yet to file IRS Form 990 for any of the
three most recent fiscal years.
The New Mexico Game Commission ended the $2.8 million bear
study contract with the Hornocker Wildlife Institute, which later
moved from the University of Idaho campus in Twin Falls to Bozeman,
Montana.