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« Reply #90 on Sept 20, 2006, 5:57pm » | |
http://www.westword.com/issues/1998-04-02/news/feature2_full.html
T.R. Witcher
Bondage & Domination
Denver's bail bondsmen are good at getting other people out of trouble--and themselves into it.
By T.R. Witcher
Article Published Apr 2, 1998
DetailsBounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman may be about to retire, but he still looks like a Hell's Angel. His hair is long and blond, and his teeth look like they've been regularly kicked out and then put back in place. His upper canines are as big as fangs, and his skin looks ruddy and sunburned. He wears a leather trench coat and cycling gloves, and he's unfailingly polite to the judges, sheriff's deputies, attorneys and criminals he encounters at Denver's City and County Building.
"From [age] 16 to 22, I broke the law," says Dog, who once pulled a hitch in a Texas prison on an accessory-to-murder charge he still insists was a bum rap. "From '79 to '98, I did not. I had to try both to know for sure."
Now Dog, who's parlayed his colorful past into a burgeoning career as a motivational speaker, has come back home to help his sister, Jolene Martinez, a bail bondsman who toils on Bail Bond Row among the melange of row houses that sit in the shadow of the Denver County Jail. Fanning out for a block north and east of the intersection of Delaware Street and 13th Avenue, this is where the friends and family members of accused criminals come to get the bail bonds that will spring their loved ones.
Martinez opened an office on the row in June and started charging a 10 percent commission on the bonds she wrote. Her neighbors charged 15. They didn't like being undercut and asked her to stop charging below them. She refused. That's when the feud started.
For months, says Martinez, her neighbors verbally harassed her about her signs. But things really got interesting when Dog returned in September. Now the fight on the row has kicked into furious, full-out farce.
"Everybody down there has tried to get along with her," insists rival bondsman Gary Glennon, the proprietor of Around the Clock Bail Bonds. "But as long as Dog is around, she's not going to make much progress. He is the problem. He's pretty good at leveling threats. Just about everyone I know he's given threats to."
This, after all, is Bail Bond Row--home to a panoply of personalities on both sides of the law. This is where, one recent day, an African exchange student busted for drugs tries to explain that in his country hashish is legal; where men just released from jail get into fights with the women who put them in and then got them out; and where bounty hunter Chapman hobnobs with a Hollywood screenwriter in the hope of immortalizing his life story on the big screen. In other words, the seriocomic paranoia on display should be taken with a measure of sympathy--and a grain of salt.
"It's a colorful industry," says John Chanin, an attorney for Martinez. "What might not fly in our law office is part and parcel here. The context is part of the business."
On one side of the war sit Chapman and Martinez. On the other sit the most prominent names in and around Bail Bond Row: Gary Glennon, Mary Ellen Pollack, Dave Widhalm Sr. and his son, Dave "D.J." Widhalm Jr., Mark Spensieri and half a dozen others.
The wild card in the battle is Alice Barmore, a former 15-percenter who switched sides midway through the dispute after she struck up a romance with Dog. Apart from those two romantics, there hasn't been much love lost on the Row.
The trouble started this past June, when Martinez rented an office on the Row at 1305 Delaware Street. Within days, she says, the Pollack family, which owned bond businesses on either side of her, accused her of stealing their walk-in clients right off their porches.
"They said I was worse than a street slut, right to my face," Martinez says. "I didn't know these people. They didn't care until I moved downtown. I didn't realize they had such a power play."
Martinez certainly doesn't look like a woman who might go to war with a block full of competitors. She has the anxious air of a high-school teacher on the first day of class, even as she discusses her enemies' tongue-in-cheek vows to toss Molotov thingytails through her windows. Recently, a mysterious photographer was seen covertly snapping pictures of her place. If it seems like she's overreacting, she says, she has her reasons. In a well-publicized case from the 1980s, Denver bondsman Paul Carpenter was convicted of criminal solicitation when he tried to hire a hitman to kill fellow bondsman George Lucero.
Attorney Chanin doesn't believe there are any hitmen waiting in the wings this time around. Neither does Denver Police detective Jim Wattles, who, at Dog's behest, has been looking into the long line of accusations and threats--even though Dog is the one who seems to keep getting in trouble. "You have to stand back and scratch your head at the pettiness," Wattles says.
Of course, this is the Row, so anything is possible. "You have to take a hard look at the people you're dealing with," says the detective. "People do crazy things when they can't put food on the table."
Dog Chapman is not shy about boasting of his days as a bounty hunter.
There was the time in 1988 when he went to apprehend a drug dealer who was asleep in his car. Dog crawled into the backseat and managed to get one cuff on before the guy woke up, and a ten-minute fight ensued. It happened near an elementary school, Dog says, so the kids on their way to class gathered in a circle to watch the fisticuffs. "He almost whipped me, but he finally went down," he says--much to the thrill of the kids. There was the time he bought a $30 Radio Shack megaphone, attached some flashlights to divining rods to create the illusion that he hadn't come alone, and tricked a fugitive holed up in a cabin near Colorado Springs into surrendering.
Dog has more dramatic tales to tell. He claims that he helped capture the man who killed Denver radio host Alan Berg and that he assisted the FBI in apprehending Wayne Williams, the serial killer who murdered black children in Atlanta in the early 1980s. (An FBI spokeswoman in Atlanta says no one in that office remembers him; Sergeant John Priest of the Denver Police Department says the same of his alleged involvement with the Berg case.)
In 1990, says Dog, he felt like he was on top, so he retired, retreating to the relative calm of Hawaii and beginning a career in public speaking. While in the islands, he says, he hung out with his pal Tony Robbins, the human-potential guru for whom Dog gives inspirational talks about how he went from his days in the Devil's Disciples motorcycle gang to his present role as a crusader for truth and justice. (Robbins returned the favor by giving Dog a plug in his book, Awaken the Giant Within, which heralds the bounty hunter's "legendary" ability to unravel mysteries and create a "rapport with young people.")
Chapman returned to Denver at the end of September to help his sister, and it didn't take long for him to get dragged into the feud. A week after coming home, on October 9, 1997, Dog went to a welcome-home party at Martinez's place. He parked in a space behind bondsman Jon Rourke's business, The Bail Bond House. Rourke says he encountered the former bounty hunter and his young children a few hours later behind his shop. He says he asked Dog to leave. Instead, he claims, Dog spit on him and "told me he'd kick my ass." So Rourke signed a complaint against Chapman for assault and disturbing the peace.
Dog remembers it differently. He says Rourke came up to him and two of his children and told him to "get these motherf**king riffraff the f**k out of here." It's possible, Dog says, that he inadvertently spit on Rourke in the process of telling him not to talk dirty in front of his kids. "I had no idea he was a bondsman," he says of Rourke. "I thought he was a parking lot attendant."
Chapman pleaded not guilty to assault. The matter is set for trial next month in Denver County Court.
Later in October, in response to Martinez's decision to post large signs touting her 10 percent bargain prices, her competitors put up their own 10 percent signs. But there was one difference. The signs of Pollack and company promised 10 percent "DWAC"--down with approved credit--which means they could still charge the other 5 percent at a later date.
Martinez's competitors pressured her to remove her large 10 percent signs, and after a three-hour meeting, she relented. In exchange, it was agreed, the "10 percent down with approved credit" signs would also come down.
"They're going to kill me over 10 percent?" Martinez asks. "They're vultures."
Once Martinez took down her sign, almost everyone else on the Row removed theirs. Almost. "Everyone else complied but Rourke," recalls Barmore. "He still had a 10 percent sign up. Then later he changed it to 'Bail Half-Down.'"
Soon after, Martinez moved her office again, leaving her place on Delaware and moving over to 13th. But she wasn't through fighting. She brazenly put her 10 percent sign back up. The hostilities quickly resumed.
At the end of the year, Martinez got some relief when the 15ers' self-described strategist, Barmore--the "mastermind" behind the "DWAC" campaign--switched sides. She had developed a love jones for Dog and had moved in with him. In the eyes of the 15-percenters, this made her a turncoat.
"Barmore and Dog are playing two sides of the fence," says Gary Glennon. "They're friends with everyone, then they run to Jolene."
"They made me change sides," Barmore responds. "I was dating Duane, and they said I was sleeping with the enemy and they no longer trusted me.
"At first I thought what both sides were doing was wrong," she continues. "But I realized Jolene was just trying to make a living. They're just trying to be greedy."
The next confrontation came on Sunday, January 14, 1998, when Martinez, Chapman and Barmore attended a meeting of the Colorado Bail Agents Association (CBAA). The organization was meeting to discuss legislation regarding bounty-hunter training and licensing that it's sponsoring through its lobbyist, Freda Poundstone.
The scene of the meeting was Poundstone's luxury home in suburban Greenwood Village. The surly tone, however, came straight from Bail Bond Row. Things got testy when Dave Hyatt, a former bondsman and vice president of an insurance company that underwrites many of the bonds written in Denver, took a seat directly behind the Martinez contingent.
"I don't want anybody sitting behind me," Dog told Hyatt.
According to Martinez, Hyatt fired back, "Say anything to me and I'll come down on you with both feet." (Hyatt says he left before the meeting even began, and he refuses to comment on what happened while he was there.)
Things got more contentious as the evening wore on, with verbal tirades coming from both sides. At one point someone called the police, and the other bondsmen tried to get Chapman thrown out. Poundstone, however, canceled the police request before any officers showed up.
"Freda came back and told everybody to shut up," Martinez says. "She went on to do the meeting. Freda started talking about the bill. It was so good to listen to her. Everyone apologized at the end."
The next day, January 15, a block meeting was held on the Row. Martinez came for a few minutes but, feeling that the odds were against her, soon split. However, she had a plan to uncover what she suspected was a plot against her: She left behind a friend, bondsman Granville Lee, to tape the meeting and report back. (Lee did not return phone calls from Westword.)
When Lee had to stop recording to turn the tape over, he was found out. Other bondsmen angrily told him to shut the machine off. He told them he had but instead kept on recording.
On the tape, the bondsmen can be heard comparing Martinez's undercutting to, well, treason.
"You know, these guys worked very hard to get 15 percent," says an outraged Pollack. "You can't take it away from them. Just like our forefathers fought a war for our freedom. For God's sakes, there was people fighting for this 15 percent for this industry. How can you turn 'em backwards like that?"
Soon after, the group gets down to specifics about how to deal with Martinez:
Pollack: "Everybody's lost it. So [Rourke] says today, 'I'm gonna do 7 1/2 percent down.'"
Dave Widhalm: "Finally, someone got fed up."
Pollack: "Got pissed off. Had it up to here. Can't blame him."
Rourke: "Least I went and told everybody."
Pollack: "And he did. He had the courtesy to tell us and get us in a tizzy. So then Red says, 'Hell, he's right next to me. I'm going down to 9 percent flat.' I said, 'Well, f**k that, I'll put 8 percent.' Red said, 'Then I'll put 8 percent.' 'Well, then, I'll put 7.' 'Well, I'll put...' I said, 'Let's just stop right there. We aren't gonna fight, either. We're gonna figure out a solution.'"
Spensieri: "I already got the solution...We all go to 10 percent and compete on her level for three months. She's gone."
Later on the tape, Spensieri lets loose. "You know everybody had the signs," he says, referring to the price-cutting war started by Martinez. "f**k that, I ain't doing it! I'll starve alone. I ain't gonna sacrifice my ass. I'll blow that building up before I'll starve."
After the block meeting, Spensieri, Lee and another bondsmen were sent to deliver terms to Martinez: If she didn't take her signs down, the others would go down to 9 percent. Before the three emissaries left the meeting, Spensieri once again cracked wise, this time saying that he might toss a Molotov thingytail through Martinez's window.
"Everybody says a lot of different things," says Spensieri of his comments at the meeting. "I'll just keep to myself."
And as it turned out, Martinez had the last laugh on that day; she already had her own 9 percent signs ready. "They were just flabbergasted," she says. "It ruined their plan."
Today Martinez and her companions trumpet the various comments on the tape as proof of a price-fixing scheme. "They price-fixed--they knew it was wrong, they continued to do it," says Barmore. "They willfully sat in there and price-fixed."
"That was gossip talking," responds Glennon, who was at the meeting. "What it is, is just trying to get her to come in and go back to regular price, and she got mad."
Pollack bristles at the price-fixing allegation. "Jolene will put herself out of business," Pollack says. "No one needs to conspire.
"They are the least of our worries," she continues, referring to Martinez and Chapman. "They need not flatter themselves. We don't give a d**n what they do over there."
On Saturday, January 17, the secret tape recordings continued. This time, Barmore recorded a telephone conversation she had with Mary Ellen Pollack. At the time, another block meeting was scheduled to try to work out a compromise. During the phone call, Barmore told Pollack that Martinez wanted to present some ideas at the meeting about resolving everyone's problems. But Pollack changed her mind and canceled the meeting.
"f**k her," Pollack says on the tape. "We're done showing her any kind of f**king courtesy. The party's over, and the war is gonna be on. f**k her. She ain't gonna make no f**king agreements with us. f**king take the f**kin' shyt down, you know--her party's over. Her f**king party is over. I've got a better plan."
"What does that mean?" Barmore asks
"I've got a better plan. I've got a better plan."
"This makes me sick to my stomach."
"f**k her. She makes me sick to my stomach. She's out of her f**king mind. I better not see her on the f**king street, 'cause I'll f**k her. And if she thinks I give a f**k about going to jail, not even a little bit. I'll f**k her up. I'll rock her f**king world like it ain't never been rocked before."
On January 23, to cash in on the Broncos' trip to the Super Bowl, Martinez ran a special offer and posted it outside her window: Four percent on bonds, see details inside. To honor John Elway, the 4 percent applied only to defendants lucky enough to get bonds with the number seven in them.
Looking out the window of Martinez's shop that morning, Barmore saw another bondsman, Jesse Quesada, "pace up and down the street," then make a beeline for Chapman and Jolene's husband, Jerry Martinez, who were outside posting the sign. "He started shouting profanities right out of the gate," she recalls.
Police were called, and Quesada was arrested for disturbing the peace and threatening to injure a person or damage property. According to the arrest report, Quesada told Chapman and Martinez, "We're going to get all of you. We're going to kill you."
(Quesada, who didn't return calls from Westword, actually spent a few hours in jail, though he managed to bond himself out for $100. Last week he was fined $50 and ordered to stay away from Barmore and Martinez for ninety days.)
And Quesada's clash with Chapman and Martinez wasn't the last of the Super Bowl fireworks. Next, Jon Rourke emerged from his office, camera in hand, to snap pictures of the 4 percent sign, which he claims is illegal. "It's against the law to rebate, kickback, whatever," he says. (A spokeswoman at the Colorado Division of Insurance, which oversees the bond industry, says that as long as the terms of special deals are clearly advertised, they are not illegal.)
Then Barmore raced after Rourke and tried to block him from taking any more shots. "She didn't like me taking my pictures," Rourke recalls, as he watches those same pictures roll out of his laser printer. He remarks, "God, she's ugly," then adds, "She said she was gonna take the camera and shove it up my ass."
Barmore denies threatening Rourke. "If I'm gonna swing, I'm gonna hit you," she says. "I'm not one to make idle threats."
But Rourke called the cops, and Barmore, too, wound up being charged with threatening to injure a person. Her arraignment is set for April 1.
Things finally came to a head on February 9, the night of the CBAA's monthly meeting. At the gathering, held at Gary Glennon's office, the board, made up of Martinez's competitors, voted to kick Martinez, Barmore and Chapman out for Dog and Barmore's alleged threats and hostility.
"They got there with a horrible attitude," says Pollack of her foes. "Before the meeting was called to order, they were making complaints." When the association decided to oust them as members, she says, the trio made threats and even hit a couple of people.
Jack Tanksley, a friend of Martinez's who also serves as the regional representative for the nonprofit Professional Bail Agents of the United States, says the threats came from Pollack's side. "There were big guys there, and I don't know if they were muscle or what," he says, "but they looked like they were ready for a fight."
But Glennon says Martinez and Chapman started it. "The first thing out of [Dog's] mouth was an argument with Dave Widhalm," he says. "Jolene threatened Mary Ellen. Then Mary Ellen fired off a few words." (Widhalm declined to comment for this story.)
Some shoving followed, Glennon recalls, and the 10-percenters were finally pushed out the front door: "That's where it started, and that's where it ended."
Outside, Martinez and Chapman claim, they were maced. Once again, police officers were called to the scene. This time they didn't issue any tickets.
"They wanted to shoot us, not just kick us out," Martinez says of the altercation. What the 15ers did instead was go to court and ask for temporary restraining orders against Martinez and Chapman. In their request filed with the court, they referred to the meeting at Glennon's shop in this way: "The association voted to expel Jolene Martinez, Duane Chapman and Alice Barmore for prior threats of bodily harm and murder at which time they threatened and began assaulting association members."
Even worse, association members claimed in the request for the restraining orders, was the January 14 meeting at Freda Poundstone's house. At that meeting, they told the court, Martinez and company "threatened bodily injury to members of CBAA. The above named have continued to threaten bodily harm and to kill members of CBAA."
The initial request to prohibit Martinez and company from setting foot in the county jail or the courthouse--which, from a bail bondsman's point of view, would be sort of like barring a teacher from entering a classroom--was rejected. But the court did prohibit Martinez and the others from coming within 100 yards of four bond houses on the 1300 block of Delaware and from coming within 100 yards of no less than eighteen named individuals.
On February 27, attorney Chanin filed a counterclaim arguing that Pollack and company had the "ulterior purpose and motive...to harass and intimidate Martinez."
On Thursday, March 5, a settlement was reached, and the restraining orders against Jolene and Jerry Martinez, Duane Chapman and Alice Barmore were dismissed. Both sides claimed victory. The celebration was shortlived. Moments after leaving the courtroom, the foursome ran into Dave Widhalm Jr., a 22-year-old complete with red mohawk and black leather jacket.
The foursome swear they said nothing to Widhalm as he passed them on the way out. D.J. recalls otherwise. "They said 'There's that punk's kid,'" he says. "One of 'em said, 'Let's kick his ass.' Another said, 'We need to kick his ass.'" If Barmore hadn't pulled Chapman back, he adds, he doesn't know what would have happened.
Police technician Randall Smith, who issued Chapman and Jerry Martinez tickets for threatening to injure a person or damage property, says security guards heard loud voices but no threats, so it's Widhalm's word against those of the others. The alleged municipal-ordinance violations were added to the growing list of cases now crowding the legal system as a result of the Battle of Bail Bond Row.
"When a person wants to make a complaint, unless we have some reason to negate it, we have to adjudicate it through the courts," says Officer Smith. A hearing in the case is scheduled for April 16.
The Row has been quiet of late. Martinez is still nervous about the unidentified photographer who's been snapping pictures of her office, but other than that, things seem to have calmed down. Dog is spending most of his time these days entertaining a writer who says he wants to write a screenplay about his life.
Everyone on the Row speaks of putting things behind them. They say they don't care about the competition. But Martinez's friend Tanksley figures the tension will continue for a while. "It'll end," he says. "They'll get enough bad publicity, and they'll cut their own throat.
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« Reply #93 on Sept 23, 2006, 12:49pm » | |
From the National Enquirer
September 21, 2006
Shocking Claims: Bounty Hunter's ex-lover reveals WHAT A REAL "DOG" HE IS
By: John Blosser
They dont call "Bounty Hunter" Duane Chapman "Dog" for nothing!
In a shocking tell-all interview, Delana Duncan-a woman who claims to be Dog's ex-lover and drug buddy-says she can blow the lid off th A&E star's carefully crafted born-again, anti-drug image.
Dalana's chargees come on the heels of Chapman's areest in connection with his capture of convicted rapist Andrew Luster in Mexico three years ago. Chapman has been released from jail on $300,000 bail. According to DeLana, Dog got legal custody of her when she was 16 by falsely claiming he was her natural father. Seven years later she says the married ex-con seduced her with cocaine. What's more, she claims, the two shared a cocaine-fueled sex party in October 2005-just months before Dog married his longtime girlfriend Beth! "Dog" Chapman stole my childhood and ruined my life," DaLana, now 36, told THE ENQUIRER. "I needed a father-all he wanted was sex."
They met in 1987 when DaLana was 16 and Dog, then 34, was a bail bondsman in Denver, Colo. She'd violated probation and he tracked her down.
"He told me:"I'm your dad and I'll help you,' but it was a lie," said DaLana, who passed polygraph test administered at the ENQUIRER'S request. "He went to court with me and got custody, claiming he was my natural father. I lived in an unheated camper in his front yard, with Dog telling everyone I was his daughter," she claims. "One night, we went to a drive-n movie. Dog was drunk. He grabbed my breast and said: "I've always loved you. You know I'm not your real father.' I was shocked and pushed him away. The next day, he said he was drunk and didn't mean what he said."
DaLana says their affair started after Chapman brought her to Hawaii, where she lived with his then-wife Tawny.
"One night, when I was about 24, Dog came over and had another woman bring cocain," she asserts.
"He kept rubbing himself against me, saying: 'Come on, baby, let's get it on." I kept saying: No!' But he wouldn't listen. I finally said: 'If I have sex with you, will you leave me alone?" I was so stoned I didn't know what I was doing."
"That night, we had sex for the first time. We became lovers,' she claims.
"Dog took me to the Big Island with him and told his kids that I wasn't his daughter-I was going to be their new stepmom!
"I stayed with Dog from late 1994 to August of 1995, and then I went back to Denver."
Duane Chapman had DaLana's name tatooed on his arm.
DaLan Duncan has pictures of her with Duane Chapman in her apartment and out by the pool.
In October 2005, she claims Dog visited her and they used drugs and had sex.
"Here he is on TV praying for druggies to get clean and he's using. He's such a hypocrite," she said.
When contacted by The ENQUIRER, Dog said:"I just feel very sorry for this woman-someone I had a relationship with years ago, and whom I have tried to help since then. I have been, and will always remain, faithful to my wife, Beth.
"We will not dignify her false accusations with any further comment."
DaLana added: "Now that Duane's facing extradition to Mexico, people think he's a big hero. I want everyone to realize what a liar he really is."
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« Reply #94 on Sept 24, 2006, 3:12pm » | |
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« Reply #96 on Sept 24, 2006, 7:58pm » | |
AND THE LIES CONTINUE-
America's favorite bounty hunter faces wrath of New World Order
http://newsbunker.com/component/option,c....451/Itemid,115/
On September 14 Duane "Dog" Chapman, his son Leland Chapman and Tim Chapman (no relation) where arrested for kidnapping a person on Mexican soil. Though it appears on the surface of being a case of international saber rattling between the US and Mexican governments, especially after the recent protests that consumed America, but something deeper appears to be the cause of this case.
In 2003, "Dog" and his crew nailed heir to the Max Factor cosmetic family, Andrew Luster. Luster was your typically "rich" pervert, who would dose women up with date rape drugs and force his way upon them. After being released on bail, Luster ran to Mexico where continued his deviant ways.
Dog and his crew decided it was their job to get this pervert off the streets and put leads out across the world looking for Luster. Reports flooded in from South-East Asia, South America and Europe. Finally on a hunch, Dog loaded his crew up and headed south to Mexico where they found Luster sliming around the bar scene, in full "rapist" mode.
In the recent special on A&E, Dog: The Family Speaks, Dog Chapman reveals the story that lead to the arrest:
LIE #1-"Tim (Chapman, Dog's bounty hunting partner) came out with tears in his eyes and said 'He's in there, Dog, and he's up to his old tricks, we have to nail him!"
With those words, Dog, Tim and Leland surronded the bar, and took Luster kicking and screaming. Unfortunately, the Mexican police found out about the capture and a chase ensued. The ended up arresting the entire group, while Luster, the only spanish speaking one in the group, tried to talk his way out of being arrested, claiming he was someone else.
What happened next, seemed like a sick nightmare. Dog and his crew were thrown in a Mexican jail on the charges of kidnapping, while Luster was shipped back to the US where he awaited a 124 year prision sentance.
For a long hard week, Dog and his crew were locked up and treated like a common criminal. LIE #2 Meanwhile, hotel staff at the establishment where Luster was staying cleared his room while video tapping. In the room they found various "deviant" sexual devices, date rape drugs and "hit lists" of people Luster was going to "get back at". But yet, the hero of this story, sat in jail.
Finally, after a week, Dog posted bail and the marry threesome were back to the states. They had assumed since kidnapping is more or less a "minor" crime in Mexico, they just wouldn't cross the border and would never have to face charges (as any lawyer would assume).
On September 14th, 2006, that illusion was smashed.
US Marshalls arrested Dog, Tim and Leland on extradition charges being brought by the Mexican government. Suddenly, Dog found out a hard way that there was an "elite".
I could sit here and recount the whole story, but long story short, Dog stepped on some toes that he didn't realize even existed.
Who is Luster and Max Factor? Most readers of this column probably had Max Factor (aka Procter and Gamble) touch there lives in the last few hours. They own virtually the entire gambit of cosmetic and "toileties" market. Brands like Always, Tampax, Tide, Zest, Old Spice, Oral-B, Folgers, Febreze, and Duracell are all owned by Proctor and Gamble who bought the company in 1996.
The Max Factor empire was founded in 1909 by Max Factor, Sr, a make-up artist for the Russian royal ballet. He emigrated to the United States in 1904, where he worked to create such wonders as "Pan-Cake" make-up, the mascara wand and concealer. Max's beauty saloon was located near Hollywood Boulevard, and he was "cosmetic" god to starletts such as Bette Davis and Jean Harlow.
He would continue on in his life servicing the elite of Hollywood and the world, as well as peddling chemically laced products to the population of the western world.
And what about the heir to the fortune?
Andrew Luster's mother recounts in his biography about the "real" extent of his wealth:
He lived on the income from a small trust left to him by his maternal grandmother; it amounted to about $55,000/year and additionally he paid about $20,000/year for child support; his father, who was an MD and psychiatrist with a psychoanalytic practice died when he was 9 years old; this was very traumatic for him as his parents had been separated since he was 5 years old.
AndrewLuster.net
So if Luster was just a common rapist, though having "royal" blood (aka Elite Blood), why wait for 3 years to arrest Chapman and send him back to Mexico. Even the arrest of Chapman and his employee's has a strange twist to it. Why would the US Marshalls show up with S.W.A.T teams to arrest one of America's TV stars? What did Dog Chapman know?
I believe the answer ties into the history of Dog Chapman. He has had a habbit of stepping on toes without realizing the extent of the connections. In a NewsBunker.com exclusive we talked to a former associate of Chapman's, who revealed a little more of the story that the media did not report.
To help protect his identity we will call him Mr. X.:
NewsBunker.com: So you have had encounters with Chapman?
Mr. X: Yes, quite some time ago, before Dog went to jail for the murder of Jerry Oliver.
NewsBunker.com: How did you know Chapman?
Mr. X: Well, I'd prefer not to say exactly how I knew Chapman. Lets just say we had similar friends...
NewsBunker.com: Can you confirm his ties to organized crime at that time?
Mr. X: Yes, Chapman had many ties at the time. He didn't get the nickname "Dog" from bounty hunting. He was what we called an "enforcer" for the Outlaws. He used to go "clean-up" their problems like people that had run up a bill with the wrong crew. Dog was known as one of the best talkers in the business of enforcment. Though he was a tough guy, he also knew that talking was much more important to cleaning up debts than just going out and "cracking skulls".
NewsBunker.com: Does Chapman still have ties to the "Outlaws"?
Mr. X: I'm not sure, I would doubt it. I do know that when he went to jail (ed: for murder) the heads of his chapter were pretty anxious to cut Chapman from the mix. Since that time, I've cut my ties as well, so I'm not aware of any connections. I can tell you this, the fact he's bounty hunting and on TV every week would be a major threat to any club. They probably have severed all ties.
NewsBunker.com: Thanks for your time.
Mr. X: My pleasure.
This all leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I have been digging for information, but thus far, I can not confirm why Dog, Tim and Leland were picked up for such a small charge (in Mexico) with such brutal force. Was it to prove a point? Don't chase the elite rapists, or else we'll put you in a foriegn prison?
And what about Dog being detained in a prison with the same criminals he put there? If he had ties to the Outlaws and had been cut from the group, a chance exists that they will make sure he talks about his days.
A perfect example of how a lie oft told becomes accepted as truth.
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« Reply #97 on Sept 30, 2006, 6:26pm » | |
ANOTHER LOAD FROM THE MUTT- http://people.monstersandcritics.com/art....k_out_on_ordeal
Dog told Rita "You know, no one knows the real story, OK? When I was let go in Mexico they said, the judge looked in my face, and said eye-to-eye, Dog this a very minor crime. The next time you come down here, you can even ask me to go with you. I know that once the Mexican government hears the real story and the American government hears the real story, I'm not going anywhere except for back in the car on A&E and hunting down the next bad guy."
LIES AND MORE LIES-
http://stg.proboards19.com/index.cgi?boa....read=1062336871
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« Reply #98 on Oct 1, 2006, 5:44pm » | |
Chapman sued again-
Duane 'Dog' Chapman Faces Calif. Suit
Aug 17, 9:36 PM EST
The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO -- Television bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman, who spends most of his days tracking fugitives who skip court appearances, might have to make a few court appearances of his own.
A lawsuit filed by a Daly City man in U.S. District Court on Wednesday seeks unspecified damages from Chapman and his Hawaii-based group of bondsman, the A&E television network and police.
The suit filed by Simaile "Cisco" Lutu, 29, claims the group wrongly tried to apprehend him when trying to snare a bail jumper who played for the Daly City Renegades semipro football team. He said police then continued to target him.
"This is reality TV run amok," said Lutu's attorney, Jim Hammer, also a television legal commentator.
The lawsuit claims the incident began when Chapman's son tried to grab and restrain Lutu, thinking he was suspected drug dealer Samu Savea. The elder Chapman conceded that Lutu wasn't his fugitive.
The lawsuit says the following day Daly City police, who were working with Chapman, handcuffed Lutu and held him at gunpoint at a health club. The lawsuit charges that Lutu was later handcuffed and held at gunpoint again by Daly City officers in a second incident.
Chapman, 53, told the San Francisco Chronicle that he was surprised by the lawsuit. "Cisco called me right after the show and said, 'Thanks Dog, all the girls love me now,' " Chapman said.
The lawsuit also claims that Lutu refused to sign a release for the use of his image but that the episode featuring his encounter with "Dog" still aired on this year's season premiere.
Chapman became famous in 2003 for capturing convicted rapist and Max Factor heir Andrew Luster.
http://tv.msn.com/tv/article.aspx?news=231028
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« Reply #99 on Oct 1, 2006, 5:54pm » | |
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/08/17/BAG48KK42M1.DTL
SAN FRANCISCO
'Dog' reality show goes after wrong man, real lawsuit follows
Demian Bulwa, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, August 17, 2006
The brawny, long-haired, leather-clad ex-con with a soft side -- known to reality television fans as "Dog the Bounty Hunter" -- swept into a Daly City park last year with cameras rolling and city police officers in tow.
Duane Chapman and his Hawaii-based "posse" of family members, who star in A&E's most popular series, were after an elusive bail-skipper who had played for the Daly City Renegades semipro football team.
What happened next is the subject of an unusual civil rights lawsuit filed Wednesday at the U.S. District Court in San Francisco.
Chapman's son tried to grab and restrain one of the players, but it wasn't the fugitive -- who wasn't even at the team practice on May 24, 2005. It was Daly City nightclub promoter Simaile "Cisco" Lutu, 29, whose mood quickly soured.
"Hey, what are you doing?" the 6-foot-5 Lutu said on film, easily pushing away Leland Chapman, who is much smaller. Lutu added, "Y'all about to see Dog f -- up."
The elder Chapman conceded that Lutu wasn't his fugitive from Hawaii, a 6-foot-tall suspected drug dealer named Samu Savea, and left, saying, "Be safe."
But the very next day, Daly City police, who were still working with Chapman to apprehend Savea, handcuffed Lutu and held him at gunpoint at a health club, the lawsuit says.
A day after that, Lutu was working at a Burlingame nightclub when he was cuffed and held at the point of a shotgun by officers from that city, the suit says.
While neither of those incidents was aired, the encounter at the Daly City practice field was featured on this year's season premiere -- even though Lutu refused to sign a release for the use of his image, the lawsuit says.
"This is reality TV run amok," said Lutu's attorney, Jim Hammer, a former San Francisco prosecutor and television legal commentator. "There's got to be a bright line between television entertainment on one hand and real police work on the other.
"When people intimidate and harass other people just to make money, it's outrageous," Hammer added. "We suspect this has been going on for quite some time and we intend to find out how often."
Chapman, 53, said in a telephone interview Wednesday that he was surprised by the lawsuit, which seeks damages from him, his bail bond outfit, the network and police officers.
"Cisco called me right after the show and said, 'Thanks Dog, all the girls love me now,'" Chapman said. "Brother, I haven't heard anything that he's upset."
Chapman said he was not present when Lutu was allegedly detained by police at the gym and the nightclub. And he said he was not involved in the decision to air the park scene.
"All I do is bounty hunt," he said.
His wife, Beth Chapman, questioned Lutu's motives and suggested that he was not an innocent party during the hunt for Savea. "Today, he decides he's mad?" she asked. "When should you be mad, brother? I see that as opportunistic."
A second plaintiff, whom Chapman questioned about Savea on camera in South San Francisco, claims his appearance on the episode damaged his reputation.
Dan Silberman, a spokesman for A&E, said the network would not comment on pending litigation. The Hearst Corp., which owns The Chronicle, also is part-owner of A&E.
The city attorneys for Daly City and Burlingame said they had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment on it until they had reviewed it.
Jody Armour, a law professor at the University of Southern California, said such reality shows are "fraught with risk." Producers ask people like Lutu to sign releases, Armour said, to avoid the possibility of a civil suit.
Armour said Lutu may be able to prove his reputation was damaged solely by his on-air link to a fugitive. He added that police who participate in such shows face "perverse incentives."
"They have to think not only about the task at hand," he said, "but looking good on camera."
Episodes of the "Dog the Bounty Hunter" reality television show attract more than 2 million viewers who follow Chapman and his crew, which includes his wife and two of his sons, as they try to track down absconders whose release from jail they had underwritten.
Chapman, who once served two years in a Texas penitentiary for being an accessory to murder, gained fame in 2003 for capturing convicted rapist and Max Factor heir Andrew Luster.
He starts manhunts by praying with his crew in a circle and telling them to "strap up" with weaponry and protective gear; once captured, suspects are subject to Chapman's heart-to-heart lectures about staying straight.
Bay Area police officers are often in the background of scenes during the episode featuring Lutu. As Chapman explained on the episode, he cannot legally apprehend bail jumpers without police on hand.
On the show, Chapman first flew to the Bay Area after getting a tip that Savea played for the Renegades. He called the suspect, who had eluded him for three years, "the thorn in my flesh."
He appeared to catch Savea in Pacifica after a few days, but in fact, the lawsuit states, he returned to California to make the capture two months later.
When handcuffed on camera, Savea seemed surprised by all the attention. "It's not like I shot somebody," he said.
Nearby, Beth Chapman broke into tears.
"Call the judge," she shouted into a cell phone.
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20060818/ai_n16666654
Lawsuit claims 'Bounty Hunter' jumped the gun in duo's arrest
Oakland Tribune, Aug 18, 2006 by Todd R. Brown, STAFF WRITER
A stony figure with long blonde hair, beaded armbands and a penchant for proverbs, Duane Chapman is as flamboyant a reality TV star as it gets.
With wife Beth at his side, he brings in the bad guys every Tuesday on "Dog the Bounty Hunter" and lectures them with born- again "Dog-isms" about living right. Now, two San Mateo County residents are going to court over their unwilling roles on a recent episode.
Simaile "Cisco" Lutu and Frisco Leaea are the plaintiffs in a lawsuit brought by James Hammer, former homicide chief for the San Francisco District Attorney. The suit names Burlingame, Daly City and South City police among the defen-dants it says "publicly humiliated" the men during filming of the A&E program in May 2005.
"People like reality TV. It rates well and it's cheap to produce," said Hammer, whose firm, Gonzalez & Leigh LLP, filed the suit Wednesday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. "I think the idea of using people against their will in it is wrong. The blurring of what's entertainment and what's real police work is very worrying."
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Hammer said Lutu appears in the latest season's premiere episode, which includes Duane and Beth Chapman's wedding, being accosted by son Leland Chapman at a practice for the Daly City Renegades, a semi- pro football team whose Web site lists Lutu as a 6-foot, 5-inch linebacker on the 2004-05 roster.
The suit says even after police determined Lutu was not Samu Savea, a suspected drug dealer, they detained him twice more in incidents that did not appear in the show.
The civil rights suit, which alleges discrimination against the two Samoan-American men, says officers with guns drawn arrested Lutu at a 24 Hour Fitness club in Daly City and at Blush nightclub in Burlingame, and claims that Chapman's crew orchestrated the takedowns.
"There was no warrant out for him at all," Hammer said. "He's not a fugitive."
Hammer said Leaea appears in the episode being confronted by the TV crew at a South San Francisco fast-food restaurant.
"Chapman implies he's a criminal," Hammer said. "They really paint him as this nefarious person."
Beth Chapman said Wednesday that she had yet to see the complaint, which also names the Chapmans and their Honolulu firm, Da Kine Bail Bonds.
"You're so lucky, bruh. Do you know how many guys have been calling here today?" she said during a break in production of the show in Hawaii. "Nobody's served us. We've only been told by a couple reporters who've called."
She said California requires bounty hunters who are licensed out- of-state to have either a bail bondsman or police with them during an apprehension, and she said Da Kine takes pains to make sure it targets the right people.
"This is our family," she said. "We've got to have pretty solid information before we walk out the door."
Neither Lutu nor Leaea has a warrant or any felony criminal record in the county, according to Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.
Beth said Duane, who once did time for allegedly being an accessory to murder, has chased bond-jumpers for 27 years and has made almost 7,000 arrests.
The couple relocated a few years ago from Colorado to Hawaii, and A&E debuted the TV show in 2004. It is the network's most popular program, with an average of 2 million viewers, according to spokesman Dan Silberman.
Hammer's suit against the Chapmans said the bounty hunters' dogged pursuit of Savea over a $75,000 bond they would lose if he wasn't captured pushed them to harass his clients.
"All of this is about money and profits," he said. "They're enlisting local police departments, who should be busy doing police work."
Beth Chapman said her firm treats suspects the way it always has, regardless of the camera crew now on hand for apprehensions.
"I've got absolutely nothing to hide, that's why we do it on TV," she said.
Attorneys for the cities named in the suit did not return calls by The Times.
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« Reply #101 on Oct 5, 2006, 8:44pm » | |
http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/sexual_assault/andrew_luster/1.html
A Night Out
by By David Krajicek
Carey was cutting loose.
The lean 21-year-old coed got together with friends on July 13, 2000, for a night of partying in Santa Barbara, Calif.
They met at Carey's apartment for beers, then went out for pizza and more drinks. The group eventually made its way to State Street, a popular spot for clubbing among Santa Barbara's many college students.
First stop was Madison's Sports Grill, where Carey downed several thingytails—a Cosmopolitan and two Long Island iced teas. Carey, a waitress and a student, had a fight with her boyfriend at Madison's, and she and a friend named David moved on to O'Malley's Bar.
Stumbling drunk, Carey and David ended up on the dance floor at O'Malley's.
A shark standing near the bar smelled blood in the water.
The man ogling the young dancers was 15 years older than most of the clubbers. But at 6 foot 1 and nearly 200 pounds, he was fit and reasonably good-looking, with a square jaw and piercing blue-green eyes.
He approached the dancing couple and offered to get a sobering glass of water for David, who was having trouble standing up.
Both David and Carey drank from the stranger's water.
Soon the night became more of a blur.
As Carey later put it, "After I drank the water, I don't remember doing anything."
That apparently is precisely what the mystery man with the water had in mind.
His name was Andrew Luster.
Max Factor 'Heir'
Luster, 37, had been born under that most cursed of lucky stars: wealth.
He had never had to suffer the indignity of earning a living because he was a descendant of Max Factor, who amassed a vast fortune in the cosmetics industry.
Factor, Luster's great-grandfather, was a Polish Jew who worked as a wigmaker and makeup artist for Russian stage productions in the late 1800s. Factor fled the east European pogroms and emigrated to the U.S. in 1902. He found himself in California 10 years later as the motion picture industry took root there.
Factor took work as a makeup and hair stylist for film stars, and in 1914 he invented "Supreme Grease Paint," a face makeup that would not melt under the hot klieg lights on film sets.
After years of further experimentation with combinations of talc, mineral oil, water and chemicals, Factor in 1937 invented Pan-Cake Makeup, which made close-ups possible for movie stars with even the most pocked and blotchy complexions.
Max Factor's product changed the makeup industry, and screen icons such as Bette Davis, Joan Crawford and Claudette Colbert became regular clients of Factor's Hollywood salon. Millions of American women clamoring for the beauty secret of the stars bought his retail products, and the Max Factor name became synonymous with beauty products.
His son ran the company after Max Sr. died, and heirs sold the firm for nearly $500 million in 1973. The extended Factor family got rich.
Andrew Luster, known to his family as Drew, was 10 years old at the time. His mother, divorcee Elizabeth Luster, was the adopted child of Max Factor's daughter Freda.
Grandma Freda set up a $3.1 million trust in Drew's name. And the boy was set for life.
Surf Bum
Drew Luster had a privileged upbringing, needless to say.
His father, a psychiatrist, had died of lung cancer the year before the Max Factor company sale.
Drew and a younger sister were raised by their mother and a nanny in Malibu, Calif., where his neighbors included Barbra Streisand. He attended Windward, an exclusive West Los Angeles day school tucked between Beverly Hills and Santa Monica.
But studying was secondary to his other pursuits: skiing, surfing and skateboarding. He later attended Santa Barbara City College but left without earning a degree.
In 1981, his mother paid $170,000 to buy Drew a small house on the beach in Mussel Shoals, a tiny surfside community just off the Pacific Coast Highway south of Santa Barbara.
The house was far from ostentatious—a flat-top, one-story bungalow with a square footage not much bigger than a double-wide trailer.
But it suited Luster, and there he became a full-time surf bum, living primarily off his trust fund allowance of $55,000 a year. He dabbled in real estate and played the stock market, but Luster never had to be bothered with a real job.
He could walk out of his oceanside house and be surfing in minutes at Mussel Shoals, where the Pacific produces reliable if not spectacular waves. But Rincon Point, a California surfing Mecca, is just minutes away, and Luster became a regular among the men and woman who gathered there to hang 10 or simply hang out.
He regarded surfing as a form of creative expression. "It's an artistic form, like a dance," he told the Los Angeles Times.
Elizabeth Luster didn't get it. Luster's slacking was a longtime source of conflict with his mother, who for years dedicated her time and money to a charitable foundation focused on animal rights.
Even fatherhood did not put a crimp in Drew's surfer-dude lifestyle.
He and a girlfriend, Valerie Balderama, had two children, a son, Connor, born in 1991, and daughter Quinn, born three years later.
The couple broke up, but Drew Luster supported his offspring and was involved in the children's lives.
So was Luster's mother. She bought Balderama and her grandchildren a home in pricey Pacific Palisades, where $1 million gets you two bedrooms and one bath.
Luster never lacked female companionship. He had a number of live-in girlfriends over the years, and he was fond of bragging about his deft touch at picking up women—some young, some wealthy.
Luster apparently preferred young to wealthy.
As middle age beckoned, he continued to pursue a rather sad romantic life.
His favorite haunts were the college bars in the Isla Vista section and on State Street in Santa Barbara, where the clientele was not much more than half his age.
He was trawling for young hotties on that July Friday night in 2000 when he hooked up with the sloshed Carey at O'Malley's.
Carey later said she felt "sort of like a robot" after sipping the water that Luster delivered to the drunken dancers.
The night became a bacchanal.
Carey and her friend David left O'Malley's with Luster and a third man in Luster's SUV. They went to a Santa Barbara strip club but were turned away at the door because Carey and David were too drunk. Luster then drove the group 15 miles down the coast to his place at Mussel Shoals.
On the way, Carey and David apparently had sex in the back seat.
Luster said he saw Carey engage in oral sex with David. David later said he couldn't be certain because he was drunk or drugged, but he and Carey "probably" also had intercourse when she lifted her dress and straddled him in Luster's moving vehicle, a Toyota Forerunner.
When they arrived in Mussel Shoals, Carey went skinny dipping in the ocean in her thong, stripping off her dress as David and Luster watched. The men then escorted her inside Luster's house, and she went into the shower and had sex with Luster, she later said.
After the shower, Luster gave her another doctored drink.
"It tasted good," she said, but a "wave of heat" hit her.
"What the hell did you put in my drink?" she asked.
Luster replied, "Liquid Ecstasy," using the rave name for GHB, the date-rape drug gamma hydroxybutyric acid.
She and Luster then had sex a second time on his bed.
The next morning, Carey found herself naked in Luster's bed. David was asleep elsewhere in the house. She said she tried to leave but he had sex with her a third time. The woman said she may have had sex with a third man, Luster's friend.
Later that morning, Luster drove Carey and David to her apartment in Santa Barbara. She gave him her phone number.
'What I Like'
After thinking over the evening's events and talking with friends, Carey went to police a couple of days later, on July 17, to file a criminal complaint alleging drug-induced rape. Tests found no GHB in her system, but the drug is notoriously fleeting.
With police listening in, she telephoned Luster to draw out incriminating comments. During the call, Luster admitted that he gave her "Liquid X."
The next day, police arrested Luster for using a narcotic to rape Carey. Police searched his home but found no GHB. They did find circumstantial evidence: a cache of photographs and home videos that showed Luster having sex with unconscious women.
One of them was an ex-girlfriend, Tonja, who had later married a Mussel Shoals neighbor.
Contacted by police, Tonja said she met Luster in October 1996 at a club on State Street in Santa Barbara, just like Carey.
Tonja, 22, was visiting from Arizona. She said they had a three-month fling before an acrimonious split. Luster sued her to recover a $4,000 loan he made to Tonja so she could have her teeth fixed.
Tonja determined that the sex video was made at Luster's home on the night they met.
The video showed Luster positioning Tonja—limp as a rag doll—in various sexual positions. He is seen inserting objects in her vagina, including a smoking marijuana cigarette, a candle and a plastic saber. The woman winces in apparent pain as he sodomizes her.
Tonja said she had been unaware of the sex and the taping, and authorities heaped additional charges on Luster.
A third young woman then stepped forward to say she was the victim in a Luster video labeled "Shauna GHBing."
Shauna said she met Luster on the beach when she was 16. She said the two had "made out" but she had never knowingly had intercourse with Luster.
The Shauna video shows Luster having sex with the unconscious—and audibly snoring—young woman, who by then was 17. As the camera panned Shauna's naked body, Luster adds this commentary: "I dream about this: a strawberry blonde passed out on my bed, waiting for me to do with her what I will."
Ventura County authorities said about 10 other women stepped forward to accuse Luster, but they limited the prosecution to the allegations against Carey, Tonja and Shauna. When the investigation was complete, authorities charged Luster with 88 criminal counts in those three cases—more than enough to send him away to prison for life if convicted.
Prosecutors argued that Luster's wealth made him a high risk to flee, and a judge set bail at $10 million.
Many Defenses
Sitting in jail, Drew Luster was incredulous.
"My life has been ruined because police and prosecutors jumped to conclusions," he told the Los Angeles Times. "They wanted to make me their GHB poster boy. They're doing this to punish me for my lifestyle, which doesn't fit in with their conservative values. In 20 years I haven't gotten anything except a few speeding tickets. Had they thoroughly investigated (Carey) before charging me, they would have discovered she lied...They allowed the case to go forward to boost their careers."
Working the media, his attorneys threw a briefcase full of defenses against the wall to see if any stuck:
Carey was suffering morning-after remorse. "She did some things she was not proud of, having sex with two or three men," said attorney Joel Isaacson. "This is how she justified her conduct to herself."
Luster was a victim of date-rape drug hysteria.
Luster's status as a wealthy descendant of Max Factor made him a trophy prosecution for career-climbing Ventura County authorities. Roger Diamond, another Luster lawyer, went so far as to declare, "Plain and simple, this is a case about prosecutorial misconduct and we plan to get to the bottom of it."
Carey, Tonja and Shauna were golddiggers who wanted a slice of Luster's fortune. (Luster acknowledged that, in trying to impress Carey on the night they met, he mentioned that he was a Max Factor scion.)
Luster claimed he had had sex with Shauna and Tonja repeatedly during their relationships—sometimes on videotape, with their knowledge and consent. Investigators found one such recording of Tonja. Attorney Diamond said in a court filing, "Tonja enthusiastically participated in fetish films with the defendant." Was that not implied consent to tape all their sexual episodes?
Luster was an aspiring pornographic film producer who used his girlfriends as studies in production technique. The women were merely pretending to be asleep.
Luster implied a sexual invitation with Carey because she had had sex with David in the backseat of his car, had gone skinny dipping, and joined him in the shower. As proof that their sex was consensual, he came up with a photo that showed a smiling Carey at his home sometime after the shower.
'Ripped to Pieces'
An investigator hired by Luster focused his attention on Carey, whom Luster had described to police as a "total nut" and a "fun-loving nymph."
Carey admitted to detectives that she liked to party and sometimes used drugs and drank too much. Lab tests on the dress she wore to Luster's house showed traces of semen from three different men. The defense believed the prosecution's case would fall apart without Carey.
The L.A. Times appeared to predict just that in a defense-friendly analysis by Mary A. Fischer published as a curtain-opener to Luster's trial:
"As the pretrial debate between Ventura County prosecutors and Luster's defense team continues, Luster's case opens a window on the persistent problems that arise when the criminal justice system is confronted with accusations of drug-induced sexual assault. These cases often present difficult challenges, including physical evidence that vanishes quickly from the human body and built-in cultural biases against men and women who sometimes get caught up in a partying lifestyle. Such cases also often hinge on the meaning of 'consensual' and the ability of a jury to sift the truth from a subculture of sometimes easy sex, performed in a haze of drugs and alcohol, that obscures traditional meanings of guilt and innocence."
In the story, a retired LAPD lieutenant hired by Luster's team to investigate Carey hinted that a bruising trial lay ahead.
"We will show that over the course of 72 hours, Carey had sex with at least three men," said Bill Pavelic. "So why would she just single out Luster? There is only one answer. She did it hoping to get his money."
After his arrest, Luster predicted in an interview with detectives that Carey's lifestyle would not stand up to scrutiny.
"If the DA files charges, it's going to go to a jury, and she's going to look like a fool," he said. "I'm going to get a top-notch lawyer and she'll get cross-examined and ripped to pieces."
Maybe it was wishful thinking.
After all, under the law Carey's lifestyle was largely irrelevant. Even if she willingly had sex with 100 men that night, a 101st man would have committed a series of felonies had he slipped her a knock-out drug and raped her while she was unconscious.
Knock-out Drugs
Knock-out drugs have been around for about as long as lust, and Drew Luster certainly was not the first to use them to satisfy a sexual fetish.
Perhaps most infamously, Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo—Canada's Ken and Barbie sex killers—used the veterinary anesthetic Halothane to sedate Homolka's teenage sister in 1990 in a demented sexual episode that led to the girl's death.
In spy novels, B-movies and the "Batman" TV serial, chloroform was the knock-out drug of choice—a few drops on a hanky held tight to someone's nose always sent him to la-la land after a few seconds.
In the 1950s and '60s, ads tucked in the back of boys' magazines lured adolescents to mail in $2 to learn the secrets of hypnosis—another do-as-I-say fantasy.
But there are better alternatives to hypnosis and chloroform, as hippies, clubbers and ravers have discovered over the years.
In the 1970s, young people used depressant Quaaludes to bring on a hypnotic altered state. The drug was occasionally linked to sexual assaults.
In the past 10 years, several formerly obscure drugs have found favor at clubs and raves.
One is Rohypnol, known as "roofies." The drug is a powerful tranquilizer from the Valium family. Another is Ketamine, an animal tranquilizer known as "jet" or "special K," which is said to produce an out-of-body sensation.
A third is GHB, whose synthetic form acts as a powerful central nervous system depressant. Minute amounts of GHB are produced naturally by the human body, although its function is not known.
The synthetic version of the drug, first created in the 1920s, has been banned by the Food and Drug Administration since 1990. It was used briefly as an anesthetic and later was popular with bodybuilders as a hormone to stimulate muscle growth.
Like methamphetamine, GHB is produced in secret labs (from recipes available on the Internet) and sold on the rave circuit, usually in liquid form. It is known by many names, including G, Liquid Ecstasy, Liquid X and Liquid E.
In small doses, GHB produces a euphoric intoxication by depressing the central nervous system. It is said to enhance the sexual experience, perhaps by subduing inhibition.
Publicity about the use of roofies in date rapes hit the national media when Newsweek published a story in 1996. A few months later Congress approved the federal Drug-Induced Rape Prevention and Punishment Act of 1996, which imposed 20-year penalties for slipping someone a sex-inducing mickey.
In 1998, the case of the "Rohypnol Romeos," identical twin brothers in Los Angeles, brought roofies back to the front pages. The twins were convicted in connection with roofie rapes of more than a dozen women.
The bad press reduced the availability of roofies, and GHB ascended in popularity at raves and clubs. Drew Luster apparently was on the ground floor of the trend.
A Sexual Fetish
It is evidence of a sexual compulsion and personality disorder, according to Dr. Judy Kuriansky, a clinical psychologist, certified sex therapist and expert on sex, love and psychology.
"When you have sex with an unconscious person, it means that you cannot emotionally tolerate the exchange that it necessary with a real person—dealing with feelings and needs and giving back to the person," Kuriansky, whose practice is based in New York, told Crime Library. "It is infantile, hostile and shows inability to respect women...You are the boss and power. Women do your bidding and cannot complain. You can do anything you want and not suffer the consequences."
Kuriansky said somnophilia, sometimes called "Sleeping Beauty Syndrome," is not an uncommon fetish. But it is based on domination and submission dynamics that can be unhealthy, and Kuriansky said submissive partners should proceed with extreme caution.
In Luster's case, Kuriansky noted, the "partners" appeared to have no choice.
She said she had followed the Luster affair closely and had a number of theories about his psyche:
He needs to take control over women.
He has low self-esteem, despite his wealth and looks, and feared rejection by women.
He is spoiled and accustomed to getting what he wants from women and others.
Parental dynamics likely play a role. Perhaps he was ordered around by his mother or father. Perhaps he was intrigued by his late psychiatrist father's ability to use drugs to change behavior or consciousness in his clients.
Kuriansky said there is an important distinction between people like Luster and ravers or others who occasionally experiment with fetish sex and narcotics that have a reputation as sexual enhancers.
Cont.-
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« Reply #102 on Oct 5, 2006, 8:45pm » | |
http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/sexual_assault/andrew_luster/1.html
Luster's repeated behavior was compulsive to the point of being out of control—indicative of "a real personality disorder," she said.
"The fetish does not just go away because it is so seductive and feels so powerful for the man," Kuriansky said. "Something drastic has to happen where he is confronted and caught and made to face up to the unacceptability of his actions. Otherwise he wouldn't stop on his own as it is too seductive and a thrill for him."
She added that Luster's background of privilege "would condition him to think he can act above the law."
It is evidence of a sexual compulsion and personality disorder, according to Dr. Judy Kuriansky, a clinical psychologist, certified sex therapist and expert on sex, love and psychology.
"When you have sex with an unconscious person, it means that you cannot emotionally tolerate the exchange that it necessary with a real person—dealing with feelings and needs and giving back to the person," Kuriansky, whose practice is based in New York, told Crime Library. "It is infantile, hostile and shows inability to respect women...You are the boss and power. Women do your bidding and cannot complain. You can do anything you want and not suffer the consequences."
Kuriansky said somnophilia, sometimes called "Sleeping Beauty Syndrome," is not an uncommon fetish. But it is based on domination and submission dynamics that can be unhealthy, and Kuriansky said submissive partners should proceed with extreme caution.
In Luster's case, Kuriansky noted, the "partners" appeared to have no choice.
She said she had followed the Luster affair closely and had a number of theories about his psyche:
He needs to take control over women.
He has low self-esteem, despite his wealth and looks, and feared rejection by women.
He is spoiled and accustomed to getting what he wants from women and others.
Parental dynamics likely play a role. Perhaps he was ordered around by his mother or father. Perhaps he was intrigued by his late psychiatrist father's ability to use drugs to change behavior or consciousness in his clients.
Kuriansky said there is an important distinction between people like Luster and ravers or others who occasionally experiment with fetish sex and narcotics that have a reputation as sexual enhancers.
Luster's repeated behavior was compulsive to the point of being out of control—indicative of "a real personality disorder," she said.
"The fetish does not just go away because it is so seductive and feels so powerful for the man," Kuriansky said. "Something drastic has to happen where he is confronted and caught and made to face up to the unacceptability of his actions. Otherwise he wouldn't stop on his own as it is too seductive and a thrill for him."
She added that Luster's background of privilege "would condition him to think he can act above the law."
What was behind Drew Luster's repeated episodes of sex with apparently unconscious women?
Bond Reduced
After Luster spent five months in jail, an appeals court ruled that his $10 million bail was unreasonably high. Bail was reduced to $1 million, and he was freed four days before Christmas 2000. He put up $700,000, his mother $300,000.
The terms of his release amounted to house arrest. A GPS device was attached to his ankle, and he was confined to his home except for essential trips.
Two months later, a long-delayed preliminary hearing finally began.
Each of Luster's three alleged victims testified against him. During the proceeding, both Tonja and Shauna viewed for the first time portions of the 30-minute sex videos that Luster made while they were unconscious.
Tonja blurted out that Luster was a "big a-sshole...I just can't believe he did this."
Shauna added, "I'm disgusted."
Defense attorney Joel Isaacson argued that the women willingly took GHB with Luster as part of the "rave lifestyle." He said the sex was consensual and Tonja, in particular, often took GHB as a sexual stimulant.
"At some point, she becomes unconscious," Isaacson said. "He continues his sexual efforts. We're saying [the sex] was consented to."
But Prosecutor John Blair said, "We see a defendant who enjoys raping and sexually assaulting young helpless women who are unconscious."
At the close of the three-day hearing, Judge James Cloninger, "What I think occurred [to Carey] is best understood in the light of what occurred to Shauna and Tonja."
It was an ominous comment for Luster and his case.
Cloninger ruled there was adequate evidence to send the case on to district court for trial.
On Trial/On the Run
The stringent terms of Luster's house arrest had been a sore point for nearly two years, and as the trial approached the defense team petitioned Ventura County Superior Court Judge Ken Riley to allow more freedom of movement to allow Luster to prepare his defense.
Prosecutors argued vehemently against any relaxation of the terms. They reiterated that Luster's wealth made him liable to flee. But Judge Riley granted Luster full freedom of movement from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day. Luster's electronic ankle monitor would alert authorities only if he was not physically present in his home outside those hours.
If he had a mind to run, he could get in his car at 8:01 a.m. and drive for a full half-day before anyone would know he was missing.
The trial began Dec. 16, and a jury of seven women and five men viewed the sex tapes and heard from each of the three alleged victims during the first week of testimony. Just before Christmas, Judge Riley declared a two-week holiday recess.
The official courtroom face-off between Luster and his accusers finally was set to begin in the fall of 2002.
The stringent terms of Luster's house arrest had been a sore point for nearly two years, and as the trial approached the defense team petitioned Ventura County Superior Court Judge Ken Riley to allow more freedom of movement to allow Luster to prepare his defense.
Prosecutors argued vehemently against any relaxation of the terms. They reiterated that Luster's wealth made him liable to flee. But Judge Riley granted Luster full freedom of movement from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day. Luster's electronic ankle monitor would alert authorities only if he was not physically present in his home outside those hours.
If he had a mind to run, he could get in his car at 8:01 a.m. and drive for a full half-day before anyone would know he was missing.
The trial began Dec. 16, and a jury of seven women and five men viewed the sex tapes and heard from each of the three alleged victims during the first week of testimony. Just before Christmas, Judge Riley declared a two-week holiday recess.
But when the trial resumed in January, the marquee figure was absent from the courtroom. Authorities revealed that Andrew Luster had skipped bail and disappeared on Jan. 3.
Judge Riley admitted he screwed up. He had given Luster a half-day lead on authorities when he decided to flee.
"At the time I thought it was a legitimate request," Riley later said. "As it turns out, I made a mistake."
'She Dug It'
On Jan. 10, jurors watched a three-hour video recording of Luster's conversation with a woman detective on the day of his arrest in 2000. Luster, barefoot and wearing shorts and a muscle shirt, was so confident that he waived his right to consult an attorney.
"We did have consensual sex, completely consensual," Luster said of Carey. "I don't know where she gets assault. There was no struggling, no saying, 'No, no, no,' nothing like that...She totally dug it. There was no negativity at all. She was loving it."
Luster insisted again and again that he had done nothing wrong, and jurors heard his characterization of Carey as a "fun-loving nymph."
But Luster's flight was a devastating blow to his attorneys, who apparently had intended to put him on the witness stand as the centerpiece of their case.
Instead, attorney Roger Diamond was forced to repeat his earlier assertions that the sex was consensual, the women were merely pretending to be asleep, and each of the accusers willingly took GHB as part of "hot and heavy" lovemaking that was part of the rave lifestyle.
Diamond's best courtroom prop was a blown-up version of Carey smiling on Luster's sofa on the night they met—proof, Diamond said, that she was enjoying the evening.
But his assertions seemed hollow without a client sitting beside him at the defense table.
The old bromide hung in the air throughout the proceedings: Innocent men don't run.
Diamond attempted to broach the awkward subject. He likened Luster to the title character in the TV serial and film "The Fugitive": innocent and wrongly convicted, he sets out to seek justice.
Several jurors seemed to suppress smiles at the absurd comparison.
Guilty
Jurors took two days to reach a verdict. On Jan. 21, they declared Luster guilty of an astounding 86 of 87 charges against him, deadlocking on a single, insignificant poisoning charge.
Many of the counts had been added to California state law in the wake of the 1996 federal drug-induced sexual assault law. Luster was convicted of 20 counts of drug-induced rape, 17 counts of raping an unconscious victim, and multiple counts of sodomy and oral copulation by use of drugs.
A month later, the three victims were invited back into court before sentencing.
"Mr. Luster should be here today," said Carey. "He should have to face his victims so our voices haunt his dreams."
"How can I possibly begin to outline all of the ways in which Andrew Luster has damaged my life?" said Tonja. "I am still afraid of falling asleep at night."
"I'm only 23 and I'm going to live with this for the rest of my life," said Shauna. "He didn't have any regard when he raped me. He didn't have any remorse during his trial. He should be sentenced to the maximum for his crimes."
Defense attorneys tried to delay sentencing until Luster could be located, but Judge Riley said, "The bottom line is Mr. Luster could be here today if he wanted to be, and he is not."
Riley, perhaps still embarrassed and angry, lowered the boom.
He gave Luster consecutive six-year sentences on each of the 20 rape counts, plus four years for poisoning—a total of 124 years in prison. Luster would have little hope of anything but a mercy parole in his lifetime. Riley added a $1 million fine, which Luster was to pay to the California crime victims' restitution fund.
Nabbed in Mexico
Luster's decision to flee was not made on the spur of the moment.
He forwarded his mail, withdrew funds from stock accounts, arranged for care of his dog and packed like a man planning an around-the-world trip.
But freedom proved fleeting.
Authorities suspected that he had gone to Mexico, where he once owned a beach house and often spent time on surfing vacations.
Less than six months after he vanished, on June 18, 2003, professional bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman seized Luster in the Mexican resort town of Puerto Vallarta.
He was hustled back to the United States the next day and soon found himself in California's Wasco State Prison.
Chapman was tipped by an American tourist couple that Luster was living in Mexico under the David Carrera.
His life on the lam wasn't so different from the way he lived in California.
He slept near the ocean, staying at cheap hotels. He surfed during the day and spent his nights cruising clubs.
After Luster was apprehended, reporters snooping around Puerto Vallarta discovered that he had left behind in his hotel room a journal with several disturbing entries. Under the bold, underlined heading "PAYBACK," Luster had carefully etched in ink the names of the three victims of his attacks.
The journal indicated Luster was still in a state of deep denial about his fault and culpability in the rapes.
The Ventura County Star reported that Luster wrote this creepy passage—referring to himself in the third person—under the "Payback" rubric, apparently referring to police and prosecutors:
"They were trying to do him in for having sex with two of his past girlfriends, lock him up forever for being with two girls he had slept with over 100 times each. Yes they were in an extreme state of inebriation and a vid(eo). But this, as any actively sexual person (player) knows, is not outside the grounds of ethical play."
Elsewhere, the journal gave graphic evidence that Luster's twisted libido was still raging. He had jotted down pickup lines—in Spanish.
Appeals Moot
He may not have known it at the time, but his decision to take flight from justice would have vast legal ramifications.
The Luster case might have been an appellant lawyer's dream, with three complicated victims, questions about the police seizure of the sex video, conflicts with Judge Riley over admissibility of evidence and concerns over whether police and prosecutors had primed or prompted Tonja and Shauna to help them shape their case.
But under California law, Luster forfeited all rights to appeal when he skipped out on his bail.
Appeals court Judge Kenneth Yegan wrote, "An appellate court may employ dismissal as a sanction when a defendant's flight operates as an affront to the dignity of the court's proceedings. It is often said that a fugitive 'flouts' the authority of the court by escaping, and that dismissal is an appropriate sanction for this act of disrespect...Had petitioner voluntarily reappeared, he would have a much stronger argument for reinstatement of the appeal."
Defense attorney Roger Diamond was deflated.
"The Court of Appeal was obviously upset with the fact that Luster took advantage of the bail reduction that it made," he said. "The court might have taken it personally."
Luster has tried to claim that he was coerced into fleeing by another of his defense attorneys, Richard Sherman. Luster filed a $6 million lawsuit against Sherman in 2004, alleging he was part of a conspiracy to defraud him of his house, antiques and money.
The complaint alleges, "During several meetings at Sherman's office and in court, Sherman...told Luster to flee to Mexico or otherwise he would end up a 'dead man' as a result of the criminal trial."
"The charges are absurd," Sherman told reporters. He said Luster was angling to get his right to appeal reinstated by trying to prove that someone else counseled him to run.
The strategy is no surprise.
Drew Luster continues to blame everyone but himself for the wreck that his life has become.
Victims Tonja and Shauna each won civil lawsuits against Luster, who was ordered to pay a total of $39 million. The women's attorneys have been busy ever since trying to untangle the Luster/Factor family investments.
Separately, a judge ordered $430,000 of Luster's bail money paid to the three victims to compensate for lost wages, attorneys' fees, counseling and medical expenses. Elizabeth Luster, meanwhile, has filed her own lawsuit seeking recovery of Drew's bail money. The suit alleges that her attorney's ineptitude cost her the $1 million. The attorney, Joan Lavine, said she was "amazed and shocked" by the suit.
Luster has sold his Mussel Shoals pad and declared bankruptcy. Lawsuits from the Luster affair likely will slog through California courts for years to come.
Resources
—''Luster Denies Charges, Adding His Life is Now a 'Nightmare,'" by Tina Dirmann, Los Angeles Times, Sept. 3, 2000
—"The Thin Blurred Line: A Ventura County Rape Case Shows How Difficult It Can Be to Judge the Truth When Sex Takes Place in a Hard-Partying Haze," by Mary A. Fischer, Los Angeles Times Magazine, Dec. 1, 2002
—"Sex, Lies and Videotape," by Matthew Heller, London Independent, Oct. 14, 2001
—"County Jury Views Videos of Alleged Rapes," by Tracy Wilson, Los Angeles Times, Dec. 17, 2002
—"Luster 'Sick, Evil,' Witness Testifies," by Rachel Uranga, Los Angeles Daily News, Dec. 20, 2002
—"Woman Testifies She Was Encouraged by Luster to Take GHB," Associated Press, Dec. 20, 2002
—"Luster on Tape Denies Raping Student," by Fred Alvarez, Los Angeles Times, Jan. 11, 2003
—"Jurors Told Defendant in Rape Case Fled," by Tracy Wilson, Los Angeles Times, Jan 14, 2003
—"California Max Factor Heir Guilty of Rapes," by Tracy Wilson, Los Angeles Times, Jan. 22, 2003
—"Luster Gets 124 Years in Rapes," by Tracy Wilson, Los Angeles Times, Feb 19, 2003
—"Fugitive Rapist Is Captured in Mexico," by Tracy Wilson, Richard Boudreaux and Jennifer Mena, Los Angeles Times, June 19, 2003
—"Luster's Journal Has 'Payback' List, by Aron Miller, Ventura County Star, June 21, 2003
—"In Mexico, Luster Hid in Plain Sight," by Jennifer Mena and Megan Garvey, Los Angeles Times, June 22, 2003
—"Luster's Wild Nights on the Lam," by Aron Miller, Ventura County Star, June 26, 2003
—"Luster's Second Appeal Denied," by Aron Miller, Ventura County Star, July 2, 2003
—"Max Factor heir Andrew Luster must pay $19 million to rape victim," Associated Press, Aug. 16, 2003
—"Luster's Mother Feared for Grandchildren," by Grace Lee, Los Angeles Daily News, Aug. 20, 2003
—"Max Factor Heir Andrew Luster must pay more than $20 million to victim," Associated Press, Oct. 3, 2003
—"Luster Escape Is Called Coerced," by Holly J. Wolcott, Los Angeles Times, March 12, 2004
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« Reply #104 on Oct 22, 2006, 10:38am » | |
http://www.bankruptcyfinder.com/news.html
MAX FACTOR HEIR
TRANSFERS PROPERTY ON EVE
OF BANKRUPTCY
Convicted heir files for bankruptcy protection
VENTURA, California (AP) -- The Max Factor cosmetics
heir who was convicted of raping three
women filed for bankruptcy protection
after he was ordered to pay nearly $40 million
to two victims.
Property records show that Andrew Luster,
the 40-year-old great-grandson of cosmetics
legend Max Factor, sold his beach house
near Santa Barbara for $1,000 several days
after he was caught in Mexico.
"That doesn't look like a sale to me,"
attorney Barry Novack, who won a $19
million verdict for one of the women,
told the Los Angeles Times for its Friday's
editions. Novack said it appeared Luster
was trying to get rid of assets to avoid
paying damages.
SOURCE AP & CNNmoney.com
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