‘Good-Looking Guy’ Found Guilty of Rapes, Assaults

A Fountain Valley businessman who told his jurors that women were attracted to him because “I guess I’m just a good-looking guy” was convicted Thursday of 19 counts of raping three women and sexually assaulting two others.

Thomas Panichas, 32, who had escaped arrest after investigations into four incidents, was arrested a year ago following the rape of a Las Vegas woman at the Hilton Hotel in Irvine. Panichas had reportedly lured her to Orange County on the pretext of wanting to interview her for a job with the cellular telephone company he owned.

Panichas could face a maximum penalty of nearly 89 years in prison when sentenced by Superior Court Judge David H. Brickner in his Santa Ana courtroom on March 3. After the verdict, jurors who asked the prosecutor what sentence Panichas was likely to receive were told a minimum of 50 years.

Panichas, who has remained in Orange County Jail on $200,000 bail since his arrest, showed no emotion when he heard the verdict. But his attorney, W.S. (Bill) Anagnostou of Santa Ana, was disappointed as he left the courtroom.

“We could have defended him against any one of these incidents,” Anagnostou said. “But when you put all five women together. . . . It was the multiplicity of the counts that convicted him.”

The defense lawyer said Panichas took the verdict hard but did not show it because “that’s just the way he is.”

Panichas, who lived with his wife in Costa Mesa when arrested, discussed his sex life in detail for 4 days on the witness stand and denied attacking any of the women. But he admitted sexual relations with most of them and repeatedly declared that they had enjoyed the experience.

Panichas said women were attracted to him and often poured their troubles out to him soon after meeting him.

“He’s a liar,” one of the male jurors said afterward. “We didn’t believe a word he said.”

One juror said she believed Deputy Dist. Atty. Marv Stern accurately summed up Panichas in his closing argument, when he described the tall, thin defendant, known for his sharp clothes, as “a snake oil salesman.”

“He was a charmer,” another woman juror said. “He thought he had everyone fooled.”

The jury deliberated less than 2 days. Jury foreman Ken Van Buskirk said the only real area of disagreement, and a little confusion, was over some of the counts in which Panichas was accused of multiple crimes against each victim.

Toward the end of the deliberations, Van Buskirk said, it was clear that Panichas had done himself in with his own testimony. “The guy was pretty grandiose up there,” he said.

The victims were all blondes and in their early 20s. One testified that she met Panichas at a bar and that she agreed to go out with him after he showed up at her office the next day with flowers.

Panichas appeared unaffected when prosecutor Stern asked him on cross-examination to explain how one victim’s underclothing had become torn. Panichas said it was not unusual for women to tear their underclothing off for him.

Panichas also told Stern that he did not consider it unusual that when meeting women in bars or nightclubs, he would show them a prospectus for his company, Western Communications Development Corp., which projected a gross income for 1988 at $190 million.

How could someone with that kind of company end up writing fraudulent checks for more than $42,000, as Panichas admitted in court, Stern asked. Panichas testified that it was simply a “temporary cash-flow problem.”

Investigators say that Panichas’ company was in serious financial trouble and that he had actually sold only a handful of cellular telephones.

The Hilton Hotel incident occurred just 2 months after a previous incident involving Panichas that was reported to authorities. That earlier incident became part of the charges on which he was convicted.

Panichas asserts that he did fly the Las Vegas woman to Orange County for a job interview and that he had no intentions of having a relationship with her when he got her a room at the Hilton.

Panichas testified that he told the Las Vegas woman he felt guilty about having sex with her because he had only been married about 4 months and was trying to make his marriage work.

His wife filed suit for divorce 2 months after his arrest, but Stern told jurors that there have been indications since then she is sticking by him.

Several jurors, in explaining their verdict, later referred to Panichas’ arrogance and his belief that women were attracted to him.

For example, Panichas said the Las Vegas woman made overtures to him. After sex, he said, “she laid back on the pillows exhausted, but with a happy look on her face.”

The victim testified, however, that he threatened her and threw her on the bed and raped her. When she tried to close her eyes, she testified, Panichas used his fingers to force her eyelids open.

The woman reported that incident to the Irvine Police Department after returning home to Las Vegas. It was then that Irvine Police Investigator Larry Montgomery discovered that four other women already had made complaints about Panichas.

Stern explains that there were problems with each case individually--for example, one victim lacked credibility without corroboration, and other witnesses needed were reluctant to testify.

“Our office did not even know about all these cases until Montgomery put them all together for us,” Stern said. “This conviction is the result of some excellent police work by Montgomery.”

One radio news reporter asked Stern if it was true that some of the victims might not have been raped if Panichas had been arrested after the first victims’ complaints.

“That’s true,” Stern said. “ . . . But you can’t file (charges) just because you want to. It’s not a perfect world.”