Woman Prevails Over Alleged Assailant

A security guard at a posh gated community was in custody Monday after he allegedly tried to rape a resident at gunpoint but was foiled when the victim wrestled the weapon away and pistol-whipped her attacker, authorities said.

“She beat the guy to a pulp, basically,” Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. Lynn Nehring said. “He was treated for divots to his face.”

Michael Patrick Guddy, 21, was briefly hospitalized and then jailed on suspicion of armed assault with intent to rape after the 2 a.m. confrontation with a 26-year-old resident of Ocean Ridge at Newport Coast, a community of million-dollar homes in the unincorporated area bordering Newport Beach, Nehring said.

The attack began when the woman, whose name was withheld, pulled up to the Vista Ridge Road guard kiosk, where the lights were turned off, Nehring said. The suspect, the lone guard on duty at the entrance, walked up to the victim’s car and told her the power was out.

“It was a ruse he used to get close to the victim,” Nehring said. “He gave her a clipboard and told her to sign in. That’s when he put the gun to her head.”

The guard, employed by Westec Security Inc., then tried to handcuff the woman, but as he leaned through her car window, she snatched the gun away and began swinging it into his face, Nehring said.

The struggle continued with the guard caught awkwardly in the car window, until he grabbed the victim’s car keys and backed away, the woman told deputies.

Staring each other down, the bloodied and dazed guard and his defiant victim then began “negotiations,” Nehring said. The woman returned the handgun and the suspect handed back the car keys.

The woman sped to her home and called deputies, who arrested Guddy at the guardhouse without incident less then four minutes later.

“The whole thing is just really bizarre,” Nehring said. “It’s hard to imagine what this guy was thinking in the first place, or how he thought he was going to get away with this.”

Guddy was “covered in blood, just a mess” and was taken to Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, where he was treated for his injuries, Nehring said.

He will was held Monday in lieu of $50,000 bail.

Although some security guards are licensed to carry weapons, Guddy is employed as an unarmed guard and was apparently carrying a personal handgun, Nehring said.

Officials with Westec could not be reached Monday for comment. Guards working Monday at the same post declined to speak with reporters.