FBI Enters Luster Hunt

As the search continued for rape suspect Andrew Luster, a former university student denied having consensual sex with him and rejected a defense attorney’s suggestion Thursday that she was a promiscuous party girl who drank too much and is now embarrassed by her actions.

Taking the stand for a second day, the 23-year-old woman testified that she does not remember much of what happened after she met Luster, the great-grandson of cosmetics tycoon Max Factor, at a Santa Barbara bar two years ago. But she said she has memory flashes that include being raped by him.

Attorney Roger Jon Diamond tried to cast doubt on her credibility, implying she only recalls events that tend to implicate his client.

Luster, who is charged with 87 criminal counts, including rapes of three women, drug possession and poisoning, was not present during the attorney’s cross-examination. The 39-year-old surfer allegedly jumped his $1-million bail last week during a break in the proceedings and is suspected of fleeing the country.

As Luster’s trial continued in Ventura County Superior Court, U.S. Magistrate Judge Willard W. McEwan signed a federal warrant Thursday that gives the FBI authority to arrest Luster if he is found anywhere in the United States.

To get the warrant, Ventura County prosecutors had to present evidence showing that it is likely Luster fled the state. But fearing that the public release of that evidence could compromise the search for Luster, authorities asked the judge to seal the warrant and he agreed, FBI spokeswoman Laura Bosley said.

Meanwhile, Ventura County Sheriff Bob Brooks said investigators continue to be flooded with leads, including possible sightings of Luster around the country.

Brooks flatly rejected defense attorneys’ claims that the suspect may have been kidnapped or involved in an accident, saying financial records indicate that Luster may have been planning an escape since mid-December.

“We are going to catch him, we are going to bring him to justice and he will be held accountable for his crimes,” Brooks said. “It’s a matter of time.”

Brooks said law enforcement officials believed that Luster was a flight risk from the day he was arrested, which is why they encouraged a high bail of $10 million. An appellate court later lowered the bail to $1 million, and Luster was put on an electronic monitoring system not normally used for adults charged with serious crimes.

“In hindsight, those were not good decisions,” Brooks said.

Ventura County authorities will press the search for Luster as long as he remains a fugitive, the sheriff said. “We’ll keep it up as long as there are leads to follow,” he said. “At the same time, we have two active homicides. Our investigators are working awfully long hours.”

In the fourth-floor courtroom where Luster is being prosecuted, two of the alleged victims returned to the witness stand Thursday.

A former UC Santa Barbara student, identified as Carey Doe, testified that she never consented to having sex with Luster in July 2000 after she and her friend David met him at a bar.

However, she also acknowledged that she does not remember whether she resisted or told Luster she did not want to have sex.

Doe previously admitted drinking heavily on the night she met Luster, but told jurors it was after chugging a glass of water he handed her that she began to have trouble standing.

She testified that she does not remember agreeing to leave the bar with Luster and has no memory of having sex with her friend, David, in the backseat of a car while driving to Luster’s house in Mussel Shoals.

Once they arrived at the beach home, Doe walked out on a pier, removed her dress and jumped in the ocean. She testified Wednesday that she had never done something like that before and believes she was under the influence of a drug slipped into her water by the defendant.

But defense lawyer Diamond tried to offer another scenario Thursday, questioning whether Doe drank too much, had consensual sex with two men and then lied because she was embarrassed.

Diamond questioned whether the impromptu skinny-dip was a “lark” consistent with the party mood of the evening. He also asked whether she was capable of swimming to shore in her allegedly drugged state.

At one point, Diamond gestured to an enlarged photograph, taken by Luster on the night of the alleged rapes, in which a wet-haired Doe is seen sitting between two men, including her friend David, who is not wearing a shirt.

“Do you appear to be smiling and looking at the camera?” Diamond asked.

“Yes,” she said, adding that she has no memory of the picture being taken.

In other testimony Thursday, prosecutors recalled a woman, identified as Tonja Doe, who previously testified that she is the unconscious woman Luster is seen having sex with on a videotape shown to jurors earlier in the trial. Defense attorneys maintain Tonja Doe was pretending to be asleep while participating in a homemade porn movie and is now lying.

Before the two-week break in the trial, Tonja Doe denied ever having sex with Luster on videotape, a statement Diamond argued was an outright lie given the existence of a second videotape in which Doe is seen talking to the camera before engaging in consensual sex with Luster. The pair dated and lived together for several months in early 1997.

Doe was recalled Thursday to explain her previous answer. She again stated that she never agreed to sexual relations before the video camera, which she described as a “fixture” mounted on a tripod in Luster’s beach house.

As for her statements on the second tape, portions of which were played for the jury over prosecutors’ objections, she testified that she believes she was intoxicated or possibly drugged.