Alleged Newport Beach Serial Rapist Is Victim of Lying Women, Defense Claims

By PAUL ANDERSON

Seven women say a Newport Beach man either tried to or succeeded in drugging and then raping them, a prosecutor told jurors today as the defendant’s attorney claimed his client is “a victim” of women, some of whom have bad memories or are dishonest.

Adel Regragui, 45, of Newport Beach, is accused of multiple felony counts of rape, sodomy and other forced sex acts on victims who were allegedly drugged. Six of the women allege they were sexually assaulted and one alleges the defendant tried to attack her but she got away.

“The defendant right there is a predator,” said Deputy District Attorney Michael Carroll, pointing to Regragui.

“He’s not a predator who lies in wait... He’s a predator who ensures his victims are vulnerable by pumping them up with copious amounts of drugs in their system, making it impossible for them to resist.”

The cases date back to 2005, and the most recent one was in November 2011.

One woman, who was enrolled in a rehabilitation program in Newport Beach, said she met the defendant as he was riding his cruiser in the city in March 2005.

The woman alleged Regragui asked her if she wanted to use cocaine, but she said she was in rehab and could not consume any drugs, Carroll said.

After she drinks from a bottle of water the defendant allegedly gave her she felt as if she was fading in and out of consciousness, Carroll said.

“She remembers pushing her legs up against his chest to try to get him off of her,” Carroll said. “She remembers running to the bathroom, puking because she felt so sick.”

While in the defendant’s bathroom, she saw he had cocaine so she snorted a line and ran away, Carroll said.

A drug test showed she had Xanax in her system, a drug she said she has never taken on her own, Carroll said. Because the drugging threatened her status in rehab, the woman moved back to Illinois to reunite with her family, Carroll said.

Another woman sought the defendant out to obtain some drugs because he was known as “the guy to go to get drugs,” Carroll alleged.

The defendant allegedly put GHB in Gatorade and gave it to the woman, Carroll alleged. He persuaded her to smoke cocaine, but then told her she was not doing it correctly and took a puff of the drug and blew the smoke into her mouth, Carroll alleged.

Regragui had the woman participate in “role play” games and had her put on lingerie and put her hair up in pigtails before he forced her to perform various sex acts, a common theme in the alleged attacks, Carroll alleged.

The woman had cocaine and methamphetamine in her system when she was tested by authorities, Carroll said.

Other victims told investigators the defendant convinced them to smoke cocaine and then said they weren’t doing it right, prompting him to blow smoke into their mouths before they lost control and he sexually assaulted them, Carroll alleged.

Defense attorney Jack Earley said his client emigrated to the United States from Morocco and was working in the banking industry before he discovered the Newport Beach nightlife and decided to get a job at a popular night spot there.

The alleged victims in the case all have some motive for being dishonest about their encounters with Regragui, including wanting to conceal an affair from a boyfriend, Earley said.

The alleged victim in 2005 was trying to avoid getting put into a lock- down rehab facility because she failed a drug test, Earley said.

Earley characterized the Newport Beach peninsula as a “vortex of energy” where women sometimes do shots before going out to “get crazy.”

One alleged victim “posed” for illicit pictures in lingerie, Earley said.

In some cases, Regragui would ask the women if they wanted to indulge in role playing with one woman saying she wanted to act out a rape fantasy and another woman playing a “lost girl.”

Regragui would show them various scenarios from pornographic web sites and the women would be asked if they wanted to act them out, Earley said.

“Usually what they tell (investigators) doesn’t match the facts,” Earley said. “At the end of this you’re going to see that he’s a victim of what these people are saying... He’s innocent of these charges.”

Earley said a “memory expert” is expected to testify how people can have varying interpretations of what happened in any given incident.

City News Service