Man in Custody Has History of Luring Women

Police sources said the man investigators are focusing on in the kidnap-slaying of Kristine Johnson is Victor Paleologus, who was twice convicted of luring young women with false promises of potential acting jobs, and of assaulting one of them.

Paleologus was released from state prison Jan. 20, less than a month before Johnson disappeared, after serving a sentence for burglary.

Santa Monica police said they have a “subject of interest,” but declined to identify him other than to say he is in custody on an unrelated allegation.

Other police officials said Paleologus has been in jail since he was arrested Feb. 17 by Beverly Hills police on suspicion of auto theft, resisting arrest and violating his parole. He is being held on $1.15-million bail.

Paleologus, 40, has served time in prison for convictions on six charges, including falsifying financial statements, writing a fictitious check and assault with intent to commit a sex act.

Johnson, 21, was apparently abducted and murdered. Her partially clad body was found Monday in a remote Hollywood Hills ravine.

In 1991, Paleologus was tried on charges of attempted rape, assault and false imprisonment of a young woman he allegedly lured to a hotel room by a promise that she would meet Hollywood celebrities, including Madonna. After a jury deadlocked, he entered a guilty plea to false imprisonment by violence and was sentenced to three years’ probation.

A probation officer had recommended a prison sentence, citing Paleologus’ use of false identity in claiming to be a record company executive, lying to police and failure to offer complete expressions of remorse.

The victim in that case suffered bruises on her face, neck and legs and rope burns on both wrists where Paleologus tried to tie her to a hotel bed.

“Victim regards the defendant as being highly capable of repeating such behavior in the future,” according to a probation report in the case, dated October 1990. “She believes he needs to be stopped.”

Paleologus was given probation and assessed $2,700 in fines and 200 hours of community service after submitting a letter stressing his clean record, promising career in sales and stable relationships. He cited his wife and church as supports.

On Tuesday, as word spread of the arrest, a former landlord in West Hollywood said Paleologus came to him looking for a place to stay after he left prison in January.

“When he came out here he came looking for a job,” said Amir Shokrian, owner of Amilex Property and Finance Co.

Shokrian said Paleologus was a part owner of a restaurant on La Cienega Boulevard before his imprisonment. Eric Shackelford, a security guard for the property, described him as a quiet man.

After Johnson disappeared, another woman reported to Santa Monica police detectives an attempt to lure her in January using a similar promise of a photo shoot and a future in the entertainment industry.

“This female witness and her boyfriend have positively identified him as the person they described in the composite,” Santa Monica Police Chief James T. Butts Jr. said. “This subject lived within two blocks of the intersection where he met this witness on foot in January.”

That meeting ended in a struggle between the boyfriend, who was watching nearby, and the man. Butts said the man became angry after he discovered the woman had failed to wear a clothing item he requested and would not come with him.

Johnson, police said, was asked to wear the same item, which he declined to identify.

The boyfriend, a former police officer, chased down and frisked the man. He didn’t find any identification and the man broke free.

Butts declined to identify the man in custody. He said he had twice been convicted of crimes involving luring women “to the location of the crime under the pretense of photographing for publicity-type photos related to the entertainment industry.” One case was a felony and one a misdemeanor, Butts said.

The last anyone saw of Johnson until her body was discovered was when she told a roommate Feb. 15 she was going to meet a photographer in Beverly Hills. She told her roommate she met him at the Century City Shopping Center and he offered her an audition. Butts said his detectives have “evidence” that establishes the man in custody was present at the mall Feb. 15.

A day after Johnson vanished, her Mazda Miata was dropped off at the St. Regis Hotel.

Butts said the hotel’s valet attendant recalled a man fitting the suspect description given by other witnesses who gave him the car keys after the attendant told him he could not park in the valet space. The hotel contacted the authorities Feb. 24. Sources said crime scene investigators have gathered fingerprints from inside the Miata and other forensic evidence from the ravine where the body was discovered.

Johnson’s body was found Monday by hikers about 100 feet below a dirt access road near the 8500 block of Skyline Drive. A nearby home, recently the set for a pornographic film, was one of 10 locations where investigators served search warrants last week. Johnson was covered in a sleeping bag or blanket, clad in stockings and underwear, with a hand bound, sources said.

She had been there for some time, Butts said.

Investigators identified Johnson by a tattoo of a hibiscus on her back, he said.

“We believe she [Johnson] met him later, that she was abducted, taken against her will, and ultimately [became] the victim of a homicide,” Butts said.

Johnson was described by friends and family as an outgoing woman who looked like a model.

She was born in Northern California and raised in Saugatuck, Mich. She had attended Santa Monica College and had worked at CNCG Cellular of Marina del Rey since November.

*

Times staff writers Errin Haines and Hanah Cho contributed to this report.