‘Rape’ Was Porn Shoot, Defense Says

Millionaire date-rape suspect Andrew Luster was an aspiring producer of pornography who was practicing his craft when he filmed himself having sex with a woman while she pretended to be asleep, his attorneys told a judge Thursday.

During a hearing, defense lawyers said excerpts of Luster’s homemade movies, including one titled “Babes and Waves,” should be shown to jurors when the 38-year-old surfer’s trial begins next week. They would counter testimony from women who say they were drugged and raped at his beach house in Mussel Shoals, lawyers said.

“That is crucial to our defense,” Santa Monica attorney Roger Jon Diamond argued. He said it is clear from videotape excerpts that one of the alleged rape victims, a former girlfriend who lived with Luster five years ago, engaged in consensual sex before the camera.

“[She] was playing for the camera,” he said. “We are talking about a performance here.”

Prosecutors asked Ventura County Superior Court Judge Ken Riley to exclude those excerpts.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Anthony Wold said a separate tape seized by detectives shows the intoxicated and sleeping girlfriend being raped by Luster on their first date in October 1996. Unaware of the encounter, she later struck up a relationship with Luster and made at least one consensual film with him, Wold said.

Prosecutors intend to offer the October 1996 tape as evidence of rape of an unconscious person, but argue that subsequent recordings are not relevant and are being submitted only to sully the victim.

Diamond accused prosecutors of trying to put a “straitjacket” on the defense and urged Riley to let jurors see the tapes to determine the relevance.

The judge is expected to release a tentative ruling on the tape request this morning.