Jury Selection Begins in Luster Trial Despite Defense Objections

Over defense objections, jury selection began Tuesday in the date-rape trial of millionaire Andrew Luster.

Ventura County Superior Court Judge Ken Riley acknowledged that he was ordering the start of the trial over the objections of Luster’s attorneys, who contend the district attorney has lied, falsified evidence and concealed items that could exonerate their client.

“The Ventura County district attorney and his minions are felons, pure and simple,” Santa Monica attorney Roger Jon Diamond wrote in a motion to disqualify county prosecutors.

From the inception of the case, Diamond contends, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department and district attorney’s office violated Luster’s rights and illegally manipulated the proceedings.

Diamond alleges in the Nov. 27 motion that sheriff’s deputies obtained search warrants using false information and psychologically abused Luster by strip-searching and photographing him at the Ventura County Jail.

Diamond further accuses prosecutors of “treachery” in their handling of the case, and requests that the state attorney general take over, or launch a criminal investigation.

In court this week, Deputy Dist. Atty. Anthony Wold argued that the motion should not be considered because it was filed too close to the start of the trial. Riley has set a hearing on the issue for Friday.

Luster, 38, the great-grandson of cosmetics magnate Max Factor, is accused of raping three women after rendering them unconscious with the date-rape drug gamma hydroxybutyrate, or GHB.

Luster was arrested in July 2000 after one of the women reported being drugged at a Santa Barbara bar and raped at his Mussel Shoals beach house.

During a search of the home, detectives found videotapes that allegedly depict Luster raping two other unconscious women.

Defense lawyers contend that Luster has been framed, the tapes altered and witnesses coached to lie.

On Tuesday, Diamond advised the court that the defense is still investigating alleged misconduct by law enforcement, including possible altering of the videotapes.

He said he was not ready to begin the trial.

Riley, who had previously pointed out that the defense had more than a year to prepare, denied the request.