Internet Dater Convicted of 3 Rapes

After four days of deliberations, a Pasadena jury Monday convicted a Canoga Park man of raping and assaulting three women he had met over the Internet.

The jury of six women and six men convicted Daniel Zabuski, a 41-year-old registered sex offender, on six counts ranging from forced oral copulation to attempted sodomy.

The jurors deadlocked on five counts involving an alleged fourth victim. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Terry Smerling declared a mistrial over those counts.

“This case holds the lesson that you really shouldn’t trust anyone you meet over America Online,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Amy Suehiro said after the verdict. The prosecutor described the victims as lonely women who “didn’t use common sense.”

Suehiro said she probably will not retry the allegations involving the fourth woman because Zabuski, a third-strike felon, already faces 150 years to life in prison. His previous convictions for sex offenses date to 1983.

In 1986, a now-retired Pasadena judge caused an uproar when he dismissed a rape case against Zabuski, saying a prostitute could not be raped.

Zabuski’s latest sex-crime wave began about two years ago, just weeks after his parole expired for the earlier assaults, Suehiro said.

One woman met Zabuski in an online chat room for people interested in dominant and submissive sex, Suehiro said. Zabuski contacted the other women by “instant messaging” them through America Online after reading their user profiles.

His attorney, James Barnes, said his client had only consensual sex with the women, who are in their 20s and 30s. Barnes also said the women had wanted to engage in sadomasochistic acts with Zabuski.

Zabuski’s wife, Debbie, said she believes her husband is only guilty of infidelity.

Juror Carlton McKinney, a 66-year-old retired engineer who lives in Eagle Rock, said jurors felt deep pity for the victims, all of whom met Zabuski alone after computer chats. “They’re very mixed-up, confused people,” McKinney said. “We wanted to take up a collection for them.”

Zabuski’s sentencing is scheduled for March 11.