Date-Rape Suspect Says Officers Terrorized Him During Questioning

Taking the stand during a pretrial hearing, millionaire date-rape suspect Andrew Luster told a judge Friday that arresting officers terrorized and intimidated him during a police interrogation two years ago.

One detective threatened to push him down a flight of concrete stairs if he was uncooperative, Luster testified. He also said other deputies with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department kept him locked in a hot patrol car for an hour after his arrest.

“They locked me in and let me suffer,” Luster, 38, testified. “I was having a difficult time breathing.”

Referring to the alleged threat to push him down stairs, which the detective denies, Luster said, “It was terrorizing to me.”

Defense attorneys contend Luster’s statements during a July 18, 2000, tape-recorded interview should be excluded from his trial next week because, they said, investigators violated his rights and altered portions of the tape.

Luster’s sudden appearance on the stand was one of several dramatic developments Friday in the Ventura County rape case.

Earlier in the day, Superior Court Judge Ken Riley denied a defense motion to disqualify the Ventura County district attorney from the case because of alleged misconduct.

Riley said he found no evidence of police or prosecutor malfeasance.

The ruling strikes at the heart of the defense case. For months attorneys have argued prosecutors have lied, falsified evidence and concealed items that could exonerate Luster -- allegations prosecutors have denied.

Luster’s lawyer, Roger Jon Diamond, urged Riley to allow evidence of an overzealous prosecution, calling it critical to the defense.

But Riley, assigned to the case for more than a year, said, “I find no evidence that there has been purposeful police misconduct....This is not going to be a police misconduct case.”

Lawyers are under a gag order and could not comment on the rulings.

While striking a blow to the defense case, Riley also denied a key prosecution motion Friday. He ruled that seven women who have accused Luster of drugging them at bars, parties, and, in one case, at a Las Vegas strip club, may not testify.

Luster, the great-grandson of cosmetics magnate Max Factor, is charged with raping three women after knocking them out with the date-rape drug gamma hydroxybutyrate, or GHB.