Witness Denies Role in Luster Sex Film

A woman allegedly drugged and raped by suspect Andrew Luster testified Friday that she did clerical work for his fledgling film production company, but never participated in a pornographic movie shoot.

Defense attorneys say two homemade films that depict Luster engaging in sex acts with women who appear to be unconscious are actually adult movies in which the purported victims pretended to be asleep.

One of those women, a 29-year-old paralegal who dated Luster for several months, admitted Friday under defense questioning to helping the 39-year-old Mussel Shoals surfer and Max Factor cosmetics heir with his company.

“It didn’t seem like much of a business,” she said. “I don’t remember that he actually sold anything.”

The woman, identified as Tonja Doe, testified that she did see a movie produced by Luster titled “Waves and Babes,” but described it as a girls-in-bikinis surf movie, not a hard-core skin flick.

But she denied participating in a sex film shoot -- testimony that ignited a contentious hour-long hearing in Ventura County Superior Court and a demand for a mistrial.

Before the noon recess, defense attorney Roger Jon Diamond asked Tonja whether she had ever seen a video camera in Luster’s house. She said she had.

“Did you and Andrew ever have sex in front of that video camera?” Diamond asked, drawing an immediate objection from Deputy Dist. Atty. Maeve Fox.

The judge overruled the objection and Tonja said, “No.” Diamond raised his eyebrows in surprise, and after the recess accused Tonja of perjury.

Outside the presence of the jury and the witness, Diamond insisted that he be allowed to confront her with videotapes, previously ruled inadmissible, that allegedly show her knowingly having sex before the camera.

He told Judge Ken Riley that the tapes will show, in part, that Tonja took her shirt off at Luster’s direction.

Fox accused the defense of trying to put improper information before the jury in violation of a prior court order, and urged Riley to prevent the defense from humiliating the witness.

“This victim has been raped, and I am not going to let her be raped again as Mr. Diamond turns this into a circus,” she said.

But Diamond said the defense tapes are needed to rebut charges that Luster raped Tonja while she was unconscious.

“They were making pornographic movies. That is the defense, including the video that was shown yesterday,” Diamond said, suggesting that Tonja was play-acting in a tape that showed Luster manipulating her body like a doll to have sex. Prosecutors played the video for the jury on Thursday.

Riley stood by his earlier ruling that the tapes offered by the defense are irrelevant and will not be shown to the jury.

“Taking off a top,” he said, “is a far cry from what we saw yesterday.”

Diamond demanded a mistrial and accused the judge of violating his client’s rights by hampering cross-examination of a witness. Riley denied the request.