Suspect Faces Trial on New Sex Counts : Crime: The man was cleared of raping a prostitute four years ago. At that trial, the judge said the victim was outside the protection of the law.

An Alhambra man was ordered Tuesday to stand trial on charges of sexually attacking two teen-agers, four years after he was cleared of raping a prostitute by a Superior Court judge who said the case was only a “breach of contract between a whore and trick.”

Daniel Zabuski, 30, was arrested Aug. 17 on felony charges of false imprisonment, intent to commit rape and forcible oral copulation in connection with the attack of two West San Gabriel women, whom he found through a newspaper list of recent high school graduates.

Prosecutors said Zabuski posed as a talent scout over the phone, arranged meetings with the young women and lured them into his car with promises of stardom.

Four years earlier, Zabuski was on trial on charges of raping and sodomizing a prostitute he had hired for $30.

Before the jury reached a decision in that case, Pasadena Superior Court Judge Gilbert C. Alston acted on his own motion and dismissed the charges, saying that a working prostitute could not be the victim of a rape, even if forced to engage in sexual intercourse.

In a later interview, Alston said: “A woman who goes out on the street and makes a whore out of herself opens herself up to anybody. . . . She steps outside the protection of the law. That’s a basic and fundamental legal concept.”

Alston’s decision sparked an outcry from women’s groups and was criticized by prosecutors, legal experts and even some jurors.

Attorney Gloria Allred filed a complaint with the state Commission on Judicial Performance, which took “appropriate” corrective action against Alston, although the nature of the discipline was never revealed.

A civil suit against Zabuski also was filed by Allred on behalf of the prostitute, Rhonda DaCosta, but the case was dismissed in 1988 after DaCosta died in a car accident.

With Zabuski’s new trial on sex charges, Allred said Tuesday, “I hope these young women will not be deprived of the opportunity of having their day in court. I hope whatever court hears this case will be sensitive.”

Alston said Tuesday that he had no regrets about his previous decision. “I tried that case and arrived at a decision based on the facts,” he said. “That’s the way I try cases. This is the justice system.”

The new charges against Zabuski stem from two alleged sexual attacks in Glendale and Pasadena on July 6 and Aug. 13.

Armed with a newspaper list of graduating seniors from every San Gabriel Valley high school, he called more than 50 young women, telling them he was an agent for one of several Hollywood movie studios, said Glendale Police Lt. Will Currie.

At least 10 teen-agers took Zabuski up on his offer to meet individually at a Glendale seafood restaurant, Currie said.

“If you look at the number of people he called, the chances of finding someone were a lot stronger that way. With all those names, someone was going to fall for it,” Currie said.

Zabuski always would arrive early at the restaurant and, when the girls showed up, told them the place was too crowded and suggested that they go to a nearby parking lot, Currie said. None of the women were willing to leave with Zabuski in his car, but several agreed to follow him in their own cars, Currie said.

On Aug. 13, an 18-year-old graduate from Pasadena followed Zabuski to the parking lot and got into the front seat of his car to talk about a purported $100,000 role in a Bill Murray-Rodney Dangerfield film, Currie said.

Currie said Zabuski later attacked the young woman, who fought him off and escaped.

In the other incident, which occurred in Pasadena on July 6, another 18-year-old woman agreed to meet Zabuski at a late-night doughnut shop near her house. She was allegedly forced by Zabuski to perform oral copulation in a vacant parking lot, prosecutors said.

Zabuski was convicted in 1979 of releasing prisoners from a South Gate jail in exchange for sexual favors while working as a cadet jailer, prosecutors said. While on parole, he was arrested in 1980 for allegedly posing as a police officer and pulling over a female driver, and for alleged lewd conduct in 1983 after calling teen-agers he found in a high school yearbook and promising them roles in X-rated films, according to prosecutors. He received prison terms for parole violations, prosecutors said.

If convicted of the new charges, Zabuski will face a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison, prosecutors said.