A hotel manager in Nashville, Tennessee, is facing charges of aggravated burglary and assault after he allegedly entered a guest’s room early in the morning in order to suck on the man’s toes.
David Patrick Neal was arrested Friday at his home in Lebanon for acts he allegedly committed on March 30 at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Nashville.
The alleged victim, Pete Brennan of Texas, told Nashville ABC affiliate WKRN that he was staying at the Hilton on “sort of a typical work trip.”
Things were normal until a man entered Brennan’s hotel room around 5 a.m.
“I awoke to a gentleman who had snuck into my room somehow and was sexually assaulting me,” Brennan told Nashville NBC affiliate WSMV-TV. “It was actually the Hilton manager [who] was the attacker.”
Brennan told WKRN that he was “so shocked.”
“It was almost like a dream, a sort of nightmare,” he said. “It just didn’t make sense. Why is this person touching me?”
Police say Neal made a key card that he used to enter Brennan’s room.
Brennan says that when he woke up and saw his toes being sucked, he recognized the other person as Neal, who had come into his room the day before with another employee to address an issue with the room’s TV.
Investigators spoke with Neal, who admitted to entering Brennan’s room, but said it was because he smelled smoke and wanted to check on the guest.
Police noted that Neal never reported the smoke smell to security and that there were no other reports of smoke in the hotel.
Investigators haven’t found the room key that Neal used to enter Brennan’s room. He told police that he threw it away.
Brennan has filed a lawsuit against the Nashville Hilton for hiring Neal. Michael Fisher, one of Brennan’s lawyers, said Neal has a criminal history that should have shown up in a background check of a prospective employee.
“Multiple charges of forgery, drinking and driving, a manslaughter conviction as well, which served prison time,” Fisher told WKRN. “When Hilton hired this person, they had to have known. They have to do background checks to know, and the fact that they would put somebody like that in a position where they have the ability to clone keys, have the ability to get into a guest’s room.”
“The safety and security of our guests and team members is our highest priority,” a representative for the Hilton Nashville Downtown hotel told WKRN in a statement. “We are working closely with the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, and, as part of company policy, we do not comment on ongoing investigations.”
Neal is currently in jail in lieu of $27,000 bail. His next court date is set for June 3.
Need help? Visit RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Online Hotline or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s website.