KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The former owner of Rockstar Burgers, Brian D. Smith, faces new charges, stemming from an April 2019 incident at the loft where he lived above the once-popular West Bottoms restaurant.
Smith was charged with first-degree rape or attempted rape and first-degree assault on Dec. 21, 2021. Both are felonies under Missouri law.
A woman who was involved in a non-injury crash shortly before noon on April 7, 2019, near the former Rockstar Burgers location told Kansas City, Missouri, police that Smith, 44, allegedly raped her the previous night.
According to a KCPD probable cause statement, the woman said she ran into Smith and his girlfriend at a club the night of April 6.
She admitted to being intoxicated before being invited back to Smith’s loft in the 1600 block of Genessee Street, but she doesn’t remember the rest of the evening.
Smith’s girlfriend woke her up the morning of April 7 and told her, “You just had sex with my boyfriend,” according to the police investigation.
The victim asked Smith if they had sex and he said they had at which point she said she didn’t want to have sex with him.
The victim told police Smith then allegedly “struck the victim in the face,” causing her to fall backward and hit her head, before she scrambled to leave wearing only a T-shirt.
She wrecked her vehicle as she tried to leave and told officers arriving after the crash about the alleged rape.
Messages exchanged through social media in the weeks after the incident confirm that Smith and the victim had sex, but he denied hitting her.
Smith claimed he “pushed you with open palm” and said he had surveillance video of the incident, including the sexual acts and the fight the next morning.
By the detectives executed a search warrant in December 2019 after the victim decided to pursue charges, the surveillance system video for April 6-7, 2019, was no longer available,
However, more than 700,000 videos and pictures were recovered from two phones Smith owned, including two videos related to the incident.
A review of the video appears to show Smith “aggressively” shove the victim to the ground, hitting her head on a wooden desk.
The victim fights back and Smith later can be seen putting his hands around her neck, pinning her against the wall as she continues to try and fight back.
Smith appears to push her to the ground two other times as the confrontation continues before the video cuts off.
Smith already had been charged with second-degree domestic assault in Platte County, stemming from a November 2019 incident, in addition to charges of felony animal abuse and sex with an animal, a misdeanor, stemming from a July 2019 incident in Kansas City, Missouri.
Additionally, Smith was charged as part of a 25-count federal indictment alleging he was part of a $1.7-million drug-trafficking ring, which distributed more than 150 kilograms of methamphetamine and 10 kilograms of heroin.
Seventeen other people were charged as part of the federal case, which was unsealed in October 2020.
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