Karl Etters

Democrat staff writer

Tallahassee businessman Dan Gilbertson, the owner of the popular college bar Potbelly’s, is being investigated for sexual battery after an 18-year-old Florida State student reported she was raped in the establishment’s upstairs office.

Tallahassee Police served a search warrant Monday at the West College Avenue bar where they seized two video surveillance servers, Gilbertson’s driver’s license, condoms still in the wrappers and took swabs from a desk inside the bar’s office.

No charges have been filed against Gilbertson, who told the Tallahassee Democrat the allegations were “rumors.”

“There’s nothing to it,” Gilbertson, 45, said. “Whatever it is I’m cooperating 100 percent with them. At the end, I’m sure they will find it’s a big misunderstanding.”

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The woman, who reported the incident to Florida State University Police Monday, said she awoke at 7 a.m. Sunday to find a man having sex with her on a desk in the bar office, according to an affidavit for the search warrant.

She told police the man approached her and her friends at the bar the night before. He gave her a vodka and Red Bull — which she noticed he did not pay for — and remembered nothing else until the next morning. She said she immediately got up and told the man she wanted to go home.

In a follow-up interview with investigators Monday evening — after she underwent a sexual assault examination — the woman identified Gilbertson from a photo lineup as the person who sexually battered her. Investigators noted she had a visible emotional reaction to the photo and began to tear up.

The affidavit said the woman recognized the room she woke up in as the second-floor office of Potbelly’s and noticed Gilbertson entering a security code into the alarm system as they left.

Although she said she wanted to walk home, the man summoned an Uber car, which dropped him off a few blocks away and took the woman home.

Gilbertson’s address is listed as the Tallahassee Center Luxury Condominiums in property records, two blocks east of the bar.

Investigators had been to Potbelly’s a few months earlier and noted the description given by the woman was consistent with Gilbertson’s office.

TPD investigators were looking for video surveillance of the woman’s interactions with Gilbertson in the bar and inside the office as well as physical evidence, including drugs used to incapacitate victims. No drugs were found during the search.

Tallahassee attorney Ryan Andrews, who represents the bar said, its owners and employees have been "fully cooperative."

"There has been speculation concerning the reason behind the search warrant, however, those rumors are false," Andrews said in a statement. "No arrests were made, nor do we anticipate any arrests being made.

"We believe that after a thorough investigation, including review of the videotapes and interviews of the witnesses, it will be clear that there was no wrongdoing by Potbelly's or any of its employees."

Andrews provided a statement from the Uber driver who said Gilbertson's accuser didn't have trouble walking to the car and did not appear uncomfortable or in distress the morning of the alleged incident.

A night of drinking at Potbelly's in late 2012 spawned the investigation into a sexual assault allegation against former FSU quarterback Jameis Winston.

In 2015, Gilbertson was named one of Tallahassee Magazine’s Top Singles and has also been involved in industry efforts to promote the responsible serving of alcohol, efforts which also addressed serving minors.

He also is the owner of the Railroad Avenue eatery Crepe Vine and adjoining Side Bar Theater, as well as the newly opened Brick Haus Pizza on College Avenue.

Contact Karl Etters at ketters@tallahassee.com or @KarlEtters on Twitter.