Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department investigators are reviewing text messages, photographs, journal entries, and therapy records as they build what a high-ranking law-enforcement source described as a circumstantial case against former congressman Eric Swalwell, who stands accused of drugging, choking, and raping a woman at a West Hollywood hotel in 2018.
Lonna Drewes, 50, delivered evidence to the West Hollywood sheriff's station on Tuesday, shortly after going public with her allegations at a press conference. Deputies in the department's Special Victims Bureau are now working the case alongside the Los Angeles District Attorney's Sex Crimes Division, the New York Post reported.
The probe centers on the Montrose Hotel in West Hollywood, where Drewes said the assault took place during what she described as the third time she met Swalwell. Nearly eight years after the alleged attack, investigators face the hard reality that physical evidence is likely gone and surveillance footage, which most systems overwrite every 30 days, almost certainly no longer exists.
That leaves the case resting on what contemporaneous records can prove.
A high-ranking law-enforcement source laid out the evidentiary challenge in blunt terms. The official said investigators need records created close to the time of the alleged assault, texts, photos, journal entries, and any witnesses who can corroborate Drewes' account.
"Everything's going to be built on a circumstantial case, and the more the better. It's a question of how much is enough."
The source described several avenues detectives are pursuing. Hotel staff who may remember the room. Any police inquiry or disturbance call generated at the time. And the content of the digital records Drewes turned over.
"What do the text messages reveal, the photos reveal? Contemporaneous things. What do they show?"
Drewes also told investigators that her assault and its aftermath were documented in therapy sessions at a sexual assault center in Connecticut. Those records could carry significant weight, if they specifically name Swalwell and describe the alleged crime. The law-enforcement source said therapy notes meeting that standard would be valuable to prosecutors: "That would go a real long way."
The official also noted that if investigators want to search Swalwell's home, phones, or computers, they will need a warrant. And if they want to interview him, he will have to participate willingly.
Drewes appears to be the fifth woman to publicly accuse Swalwell of rape or sexual misconduct, the Washington Examiner reported. Four women came forward last week with claims against the former California congressman, including at least one who said he sexually assaulted her. The cascade of allegations forced Swalwell to pull out of the California governor's race and then resign from Congress.
At her press conference, Drewes described the alleged 2018 encounter in graphic terms. She said she believes Swalwell drugged her drink, she had consumed only one glass of wine, before the assault.
The Washington Times reported Drewes' account of what followed:
"He raped me, and he choked me, and while he was choking me, I lost consciousness, and I thought I died. I did not consent to sexual activity."
Drewes said she did not come forward sooner because of Swalwell's political connections and his family ties to law enforcement. That explanation tracks with a pattern seen in high-profile cases where accusers describe the power imbalance as a barrier to reporting.
The growing number of accusers and the speed of Swalwell's political collapse add to what has become a broader pattern of trouble for Democrats, who have watched one crisis after another erode public confidence in their leadership.
Swalwell has not responded publicly to Drewes' specific claims. But his attorney, Sara Azari, issued a blanket denial on his behalf. AP News reported the statement:
"He categorically and unequivocally denies each and every allegation of sexual misconduct and assault that has been leveled against him."
That denial covers not only the Drewes allegation but the claims of the four other women who came forward. It also covers a separate criminal case now proceeding in New York City, where an ex-staffer has accused Swalwell of assault.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department declined to comment on the specifics of the probe but confirmed the broad outlines of the investigation. The department stated: "Investigators are in the process of gathering information, reviewing available evidence, and conducting follow up inquiries."
Once the investigation concludes, the sheriff's department will present its findings to the Los Angeles District Attorney's office, which will decide whether enough evidence exists to file charges. The DA's office confirmed it has already assigned a prosecuting attorney to assist.
California's statute of limitations for pursuing sexual assault charges can be extended to ten years or longer, which means the 2018 allegation remains within the window for criminal prosecution. That legal reality gives investigators time, but the passage of nearly eight years has already eroded the kind of physical and forensic evidence that typically anchors a sexual assault case.
The law-enforcement source acknowledged the difficulty. Witnesses may have moved. Hotel records may have been purged. The official floated the possibility that a hotel maid might remember cleaning the room and noticing evidence of a crime, but conceded that such leads grow thinner with every passing year.
The question now is whether the contemporaneous records Drewes provided, and whatever investigators can pull from the Montrose Hotel, Connecticut therapy files, and potential witnesses, will meet the threshold prosecutors need.
Swalwell's fall has been swift. A congressman who once sat on the House Intelligence Committee and ran for president now faces accusations from five women, a criminal investigation in New York, a probe in Los Angeles, and a House Ethics Committee inquiry. He resigned from Congress amid the fallout and abandoned his campaign for California governor, a race that itself reflected the deep dissatisfaction California voters feel with the state's current Democratic leadership.
None of this means guilt has been established. Swalwell is entitled to the presumption of innocence, and his attorney's denial is on the record. But the sheer volume of allegations, the involvement of multiple law-enforcement agencies, and the DA's decision to embed a Sex Crimes Division prosecutor in the investigation suggest that officials are treating these claims with the seriousness the accusers demanded.
For Democrats, the Swalwell matter arrives at a moment when the party can least afford another self-inflicted wound. Internal fractures are already visible, from John Fetterman openly breaking with his caucus to elected officials leaving the party altogether.
The question of accountability does not belong to any party. But the question of whether party leaders will demand it, or quietly hope the story fades, is one Democrats will have to answer. They spent years insisting that accusers deserve to be heard and that powerful men must be held to account. Five women are now testing whether that standard applies to their own.
Drewes said she stayed silent for years because she feared Swalwell's connections would protect him. The dysfunction inside the Democratic Party may have finally given her, and the other accusers, room to speak.
Investigators now have the evidence Drewes turned over. The DA's office has a prosecutor assigned. The only thing left is to see whether the system treats a well-connected former congressman the same way it would treat anyone else.
