Student Testifies Rape Suspect Drugged Him and Female Friend

A male college student out with a female classmate the night she was allegedly raped by cosmetics heir Andrew Luster testified that he suspected the Mussel Shoals millionaire may have slipped drugs to both of them before the attack.

The man, identified in court only as David Doe, said Luster gave him a cup of water and that after drinking it he felt extremely drunk and began to black out.

“I just felt heavily drunk after that,” David said. “It seemed almost immediately.”

Prosecutors charge that Luster, the 37-year-old great grandson of Max Factor, used the date rape drug gamma hydroxybutrate, or GHB, to render three women unconscious before raping them at his home and videotaping at least two of the attacks.

A Ventura County Superior Court judge is expected to decide Monday whether there is enough evidence to force Luster to stand trial on 88 counts of rape, sexual assault, poisoning, sodomy and possession of a deadly weapon.

Defense attorneys, however, allege the sexual incidents were consensual and the women making the allegations include a scorned ex-girlfriend out for revenge and young party girls who made up the rape allegations because they were embarrassed by their behavior.

Bolstering this argument, defense attorney James Blatt said, is the fact that David had sex with his female friend in the back seat of Luster’s car as the group drove from a Santa Barbara bar to Mussel Shoals in July 2000. A friend of Luster’s was also in the car, attorneys said.

Attorneys allege the impromptu sex proves David and his female friend were active participants in the night’s activities, which included heavy drinking and sex. On the stand, Blatt tried to get David to acknowledge that he felt remorseful about his behavior.

“You don’t feel any guilt about having sex in the back seat of the car with two other men in front?” Blatt asked.

“Yes, I do,” said David, adding that he only has flashes of memory about the encounter and believes his drug-induced state may have been to blame. David, who had just recently turned 21 the night of the incident, also acknowledged drinking beer, a Long Island iced tea and a whiskey sour while at the bar.

David said he later tried to lie to police about the sexual encounter, because he feared repercussions from his strict Catholic family. He also wanted to protect his friend, identified in court only as Carey Doe.

“I didn’t want people to think she was promiscuous,” David said.

David’s testimony followed that of Carey, who testified that Luster had sex with her at least three times at his home in Mussel Shoals that night. Luster’s friend may have been involved in at least one of the encounters, the woman said, though she could not remember details from that night clearly. She testified that she blacked out entirely after Luster gave her a drink that he later told her was laced with “liquid ecstasy,” another name for GHB.

Carey and David said they met Luster for the first time that evening while dancing at a nightclub in Santa Barbara.

Carey went to police two days later to report her suspicions of being drugged and raped. During a search of Luster’s home, authorities found guns, vials of a clear liquid thought to be GHB, and videotapes of Luster having sex with two alleged victims as they lay unconscious.

During the videos, shown to Judge James P. Cloninger earlier in the week, Luster occasionally spoke into the camera.

“The most perfect gifts, I think,” Luster said during one tape, “are a perfect surf and a beautiful blond girl passed out on your bed waiting for anything.”

The other alleged victims include a woman, now 21, who testified she met Luster when she was 16 years old while on a beach off Pacific Coast Highway. The girl said she went to Luster’s home several times over the following year, but never consented to sex. A tape, however, showed Luster having sex with the woman as she slept, with her pronounced snoring audible in the courtroom.

A second woman dated and lived with Luster for three months, but she testified she never knew about a tape that was made the first night she met him. That video shows her laying unconscious as Luster engages in sex with her for about 30 minutes.