12 April 23rd - April 29th, 2026 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | One would think more than 40 people saying they were drugged and ripped off might be enough to request a search warrant to look for whatever was being used to allegedly zonk out club-goers. But there’s nothing in the transcript or in any of the police reports obtained by New Times that proves this happened. Do the hustle Metz testified that his investigation foun- dered because “no one wanted to talk to me. I couldn’t get dancers or managers to talk to me.” In fact, Metz did talk to at least two former employees, as well as the clubs’ bookkeeper and a manager. None of them offered any indication that druggings were afoot. Quite the contrary. As is recounted both in Metz’s testi- mony and in an August 2025 summary of his investigation, Metz and another detec- tive met with the bookkeeper for Skin and Bones and with other employees. The bookkeeper believed all the charges were legit, and the employees explained the process they have for documenting large credit card charges: a signed contract, a fingerprint and a photo for each charge in a VIP room, all done in case the cardholder challenges the bill. “The prices for a VIP room are $400 to $600 for 15 minutes, $800 to $1,200 for 30 minutes and $1,500 to $2,500 for an hour,” Metz’s report states. “Tips are extra. When the time ends for the customer, they can choose to add further time. If they do, they need to take another photograph, sign a contract and thumbprint it. Drinks are included in the price of a VIP room.” A manager gave Metz and the other officer a tour of Bones Cabaret, where they saw the VIP rooms. The cops were told that the dancers needed a permit from the city of Scottsdale before the women were allowed to dance. The detectives later received copies of the contracts signed by customers. In his police report, Metz stated that he asked the bookkeeper about one hostess who was tasked with taking photos and acquiring documentation. He was told the woman was an ex-employee who left on bad terms — in other words, a potential witness. Metz and an agent with the Attorney General’s Office, Heidi Chance, eventually interviewed this former employee via Zoom. But despite being involved in a labor dispute with the clubs, the employee threw water on the idea that anyone would be drugged and manipulated. She admitted that it might be possible for a dancer to drug a customer. But she had never seen such activity, and if she had, she would have informed a manager, who would have been pissed. She also noted that “after the movie ‘Hustlers’ came out, more customers claimed they were drugged,” but she “could not understand why the customers would say they were drugged” because customers “would need to physically speak with their banks to get their charges approved.” She had never heard of dancers using customers’ phones to approve charges with the credit card companies, or of dancers holding the phones up to the customers’ faces to gain access to the phones, as alleged in Galarza’s complaint. She never saw anyone put “roofies” or other drugs into the champagne that came with the VIP rooms, and explained that the bottles were unopened until brought to the rooms. She never saw a customer being posed by hostesses for photographs or saw fingerprints and signatures being faked. In his arbitration testimony, Metz described interviewing another former Skin and Bones dancer who had been arrested on an unrelated warrant. The dancer told him she had never seen customers being drugged, nor had she participated in doing so. But she did report that “other dancers used to giggle in the locker room about drug- ging the customers” with Visine, which, according to various sources, contains an ingredient that could be used to facilitate sexual assault. However, in the parlance of attorneys, that’s referred to as “hearsay.” In his investigative report, Metz observed that “all of the reporting parties report being in some state of intoxication before arriving at the cabarets” or in the cabarets them- selves. Indeed, Metz had “re-contacted the reporting parties” to interview them about an alleged conspiracy to drug patrons at the clubs. Borowsky’s complaint suggests that it was hearing about the alleged scheme from Metz weeks, months or even years after the fact that gave complainants the bright idea to say they were drugged. When asked about the massive charges incurred by some customers, Metz testified in his deposition that “I still can’t prove whether or not they’re legitimate.” Eyes wide shut Despite the lack of proof — or, indeed, evidence to the contrary — Metz and Scottsdale police still took steps to screw with the clubs’ business. Some contradictory evidence exists in the form of photos of supposedly drugged patrons with their bills. Several such photos were given to New Times by Wilenchik, though New Times has not seen all of the photos in the case. Nor is New Times identi- fying the men depicted in them. Several snapshots show Bones Cabaret patrons holding up signed contracts with shit-eating grins on their faces. One alleged victim is shown sitting up in a chair by himself, eyes wide open and a huge smile on his face as he holds his contracts with the club aloft. He’s wearing a t-shirt with a heart that reads “I’m scum.” When asked, Galarza said he was unfamiliar with the “I’m scum” photo, but he said context was important. More than one photograph may have been taken of the individual during his sojourn in the VIP room; the question is: Which was first? But Galarza agreed that someone can black out and forget events from drinking too much alcohol, a common-enough occurrence to be the basis for “The Hangover” movie series. The photos present a persuasive case that at least some of the massive charges were made with the full knowledge of the customers, which is the entire reason the photos were taken. They’re part of why many of the aggrieved patrons have so far been unsuccessful in overturning the charges with their credit card companies. So, unable to make the case against Borowsky’s clubs in a criminal filing, Scottsdale leaned on one credit card company to drive Borowsky underground. Metz reached out to a contact who was a fraud investigator at American Express, informing her that the clubs were under criminal investigation and laying out the suspected conspiracy afoot. Metz testified in the arbitration hearing that he never advised the AmEx investi- gator on what to do. Yet, in one April 2022 email to his superiors included as an exhibit to the Borowsky lawsuit, Metz wrote a to-do list that included “Contact American Express and ask about the possibility if they can revoke their products from use in Skin and Bones.” According to Wilenchik, AmEx complied, canceling out a huge source of revenue for Borowsky’s cabarets. Metz also exchanged several emails with Galarza between 2022 and 2024, with Galarza sending at least one of his clients to file a police report on the suspect credit card charges. Galarza told New Times that this was for a credit card company, which needed a report for their investigation of the charges. In one email to Metz, Galarza asked if he had a record of ever contacting the credit card companies involved. In another, Metz requested documents from Galarza regarding one of the counselor’s clients and the client’s dispute with AmEx. Galarza sent them to Metz later that day, saying, “Here’s what I have.” Metz also sent Galarza’s info to investiga- tors with the Attorney General’s Office, telling them that he had “received a call” from Galarza, who “has multiple subjects that may be able to assist in the case.” Galarza initially confirmed to New Times that he’d had communications with Metz, but when pressed on details in the emails, he said he had no comment. When Fox 10 broadcast its stories on the allegations, the mood at the Scottsdale Police Department was practi- cally celebratory. Emails show Metz and other officers passed around links to the pieces, with Metz forwarding a link to the Attorney General’s Office. They never turned the investigation into actual convictions, or even an indictment. But they’d managed to damage a private busi- ness, albeit a socially disfavored one. “They were out to get Todd,” Wilenchik said, adding that the clubs have lost a lot of revenue as a result of the saga. “Metz set out along with a couple of others on a path to destroy them, and they did.” What becomes of Borowsky’s lawsuit remains to be seen. The competing lawsuit from cabaret clients is still ongoing, even if the police investigation stalled out — due to a lack of evidence, incompetence or some other reason. “Everybody’s looking to pick everyone else’s pocket,” Wilenchik said of the suit against the clubs, and now “we’re going to try to pick Scottsdale’s pocket.” “If nothing else,” he added, “we’ll get the story out in the end.” This story is part of the Arizona Watchdog Project, a yearlong reporting effort led by New Times and supported by the Trace Foundation, in partnership with Deep South Today. Strip Search from p 11 For all the effort Scottsdale police put into investigating Todd Borowsky’s clubs, the cops turned up little hard evidence of anything amiss. (fsHH Pixabay, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons)
