Australian golfer sticks to his story

Australian golfer Robert Allenby maintained Tuesday during a press conference that he has no memory of the 21⁄2 hours after he left Amuse Wine Bar on Kapiolani Boulevard on the night of Jan. 16.

And while the latest account from a Golf Channel reporter points to him being at Club Femme Nu and running up a $3,400 tab, the owner and two bar employees at the strip club told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Tuesday that Allenby was not there at all that night. The owner, Yun Hee Im, would not elaborate, but the employees suggested that it was a case of mistaken identity.

One employee said business was slow that night, and no one came close to spending that amount. Another employee said an Australian man spent a large sum at the club on Saturday night and was apparently presumed to be Allenby.

During his news conference at the Waste Management Phoenix Open in Arizona, Allenby said, "I think the No. 1 thing that you should all remember is that my story stays exactly the same as the way I told it. I told you what I knew, and I told you what someone told me."

"That is the bottom line," he said. "I never lied to anyone."

Allenby has said he was drugged, kidnapped, thrown into a trunk of a car, robbed and dumped some 6 miles from Amuse Wine Bar after missing the cut in the Sony Open.

The story attracted international media attention with wildly varying accounts after Golf Channel showed a photo that Allenby took of himself with a swollen left eye and scrapes to his forehead and nose.

Golf Channel reported Sunday that anonymous sources working at Club Femme Nu said Allenby was there with a group of friends at about midnight, the night he was injured, and ran up a $3,400 tab.

Allenby said he has no memory of that.

"The police will come out with the right story, so please, let them do their job, don’t get in the way of them, and everything will be great," he said. He said he hopes police will have news by the end of the week.

Police have not opened a kidnapping case, but opened second-degree robbery and fraudulent use of a credit card cases.

A police source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said police may have identified a suspect who allegedly made more than $20,000 in credit card charges on Allenby’s credit cards between Jan. 17 and 19.

Allenby said he was a victim of a crime, but the media has been blaming him.

"I take full responsibility if I did do something wrong," he said. "But as I said, from about 11:06 to about 1:27 a.m., I have no memory in my brain. I have nothing.

"I can’t tell you how frustrating that is, because we all want to know the truth," he said. "We all want to get to the bottom of it."

Honolulu resident Chris Khamis, one of two homeless men who encountered Allenby that night, said the golfer’s injuries came when he passed out and hit his head on a lava rock near the corner of Kapiolani Boulevard and Piikoi Street.

"I’m a social worker, and that’s why I was helping him," said Khamis, who said he last worked for the nonprofit Wai­kiki Health Center but lost his job after grant funding for his position ran out.

Khamis said he saw Allenby rocking back and forth on a rock and that he took his eyes off Allenby in order to look for an empty cab or someone with a phone who could help, and when he looked back a second later, Allenby was on the ground bleeding after hitting his head on a rock.

"It (blood) was just squirting out of his head," Khamis said.

Khamis said he helped Allenby up and led him to the corner where he hoped to find help. About five minutes after Allenby was hurt, Khamis saw a homeless woman named Charade Keane and waved her down, believing she had a cellphone.

Keane has said she thought Khamis and his friend Toa Kaili, who arrived after Allenby had hit his head, were trying to rob Allenby and helped Allenby walk away.

At his press conference, Allenby said his headaches subsided only two days ago. "It’s like someone stuck a knife in my eye," he said.

When a reporter asked if he regrets sharing his story initially, Allenby said he had posted a photo of himself on Facebook so his 15-year-old son would call him, leading to Golf Channel picking up on the story.

While Allenby can’t recall the 2 1⁄2 hours after he left the wine bar, Khamis said he believes Allenby spent that time on the corner across from Amuse.

He said he and Kaili found Allenby passed out on the sidewalk at the intersection at about 11 p.m., according to his watch. The two men, concerned about his well-being, roused Allenby, but Allenby eventually began accusing them of taking his belongings. The two men left and walked toward Ward Avenue to meet a friend, then returned about an hour later to the intersection and Allenby was still there, but sitting by the bushes. Khamis, said he has a bachelor’s degree in social work from the University of Nevada Las Vegas, and was doing what he was trained to do: help those in need.

He said he sat with Allenby and talked for about 45 minutes. Khamis asked Allenby whether he had been doing drugs or drinking at the strip club, and Allenby responded that in fact he had been to a strip club where he was drugged.

Allenby never mentioned what club he went to and didn’t smell like alcohol, Khamis said.