Convicted Rapist Claims He Is Broke

Convicted rapist Andrew Luster is seeking bankruptcy protection after being ordered to pay nearly $40 million to two women who sued him after he drugged and sexually assaulted them at his beachfront home.

Luster, 40, the great-grandson of the late cosmetics legend Max Factor, filed for bankruptcy last month and stated in court documents that he had no assets.

Property records show the self-employed real estate investor, who is now serving a lengthy prison sentence, sold his beach house near Santa Barbara for $1,000 just days after he was apprehended in Mexico for fleeing his Ventura County trial.

Given the price of coastal real estate in Southern California, an attorney representing one of the women who sued said it appeared Luster was trying to get rid of assets to avoid paying damages to his victims.

“That doesn’t look like a sale to me,” said attorney Barry Novack, who won a $19-million verdict for one of the women, who was drugged and raped by Luster in 1997.

Novack said bankruptcy would not shield Luster from paying damages because the judge presiding over the civil trial made a specific finding that Luster’s actions were malicious and intentional. But it could make collecting the money difficult.

“The findings of the court make her judgment nondischargable in bankruptcy, so in other words he cannot wipe out the judgment,” Novack said. “What he is trying to do is throw a monkey wrench into the ability to collect.”

Attorney Harold Greenberg, who represents Luster in two pending civil matters, said the bankruptcy petition would put those proceedings on hold. Meanwhile, he said, the women previously awarded damages would have to stand in line with other creditors.

“He doesn’t have any money and there are all these people who are hounding him,” Greenberg said of Luster, who has two children. “I think there is also an issue of child support and there is a question of money that has been seized.”

As for the beachfront property, Greenberg said he was investigating the circumstances surrounding the sale because “something is not right.”

Attorney William Daniels, who won a $20.5-million verdict last fall on behalf of the second victim, said he anticipated Luster would seek bankruptcy protection in the face of four personal injury lawsuits filed after his arrest.

“There is no shortage of creditors in line,” said Daniels, whose client received a portion of Luster’s forfeited bail money after his capture. “We are going to keep pursuing him. It is important to my client that we keep up the effort simply because it is part of what we believe is the just result in the case. Ultimately, we are going to find out where his assets are.”

Luster’s bankruptcy attorney did not return calls for comment.

The bankruptcy filing occurred just days before Luster’s criminal attorney, Roger Diamond, filed a writ with the U.S. Supreme Court challenging a state court decision that denied Luster’s appeal, concluding that he forfeited his appellate rights when he fled the country.

Diamond said Thursday that the bankruptcy petition would have no effect on Luster’s efforts to pursue an appeal. He declined to discuss his financial arrangement with Luster or who paid for the filing the writ.

As for Luster’s finances, Diamond said his client’s estimated worth has been exaggerated from the beginning of the case when prosecutors sought a record $10-million bail on grounds he was a flight risk with deep pockets. Luster’s mother, Elizabeth, told a probation officer her son received $55,000 a year from interest on a trust fund and was worth “way less than a million dollars.”

Daniels’ client, however, testified during her civil trial that Luster told her he was worth about $87 million.

Luster was convicted a year ago of raping three women at his Mussel Shoals beach house in 1996, 1997 and 2000 after knocking them out with a potent anesthetic, gamma hydroxybutyrate, or GHB. He was arrested after a Santa Barbara college student reported being drugged and raped after meeting Luster in a bar. When authorities searched Luster’s house, detectives found videotapes of him having sex with unconscious women.

Those three women have since sued Luster, and a fourth woman who also claims to have been drugged and raped has filed a lawsuit.

During the criminal trial, Diamond argued that the women on the videotapes were not rape victims but ex-lovers who willingly participated in pornographic films Luster intended to sell. The defense also alleged that police tampered with evidence, but the trial judge found those claims were not credible and would not allow the defense to raise the allegations before the jury.

On Jan. 3, 2003, Luster jumped his $1-million cash bail and fled.

He was caught in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, on June 18 and is now serving a 124-year sentence at Salinas Valley State Prison in Monterey County.

In the writ filed with the Supreme Court, Diamond states that Luster fled “in a panic when it appeared that his criminal trial was not providing a fair forum for the adjudication of his guilt or innocence.” The court has not decided whether to hear the case.