Ex-detective guilty of rape, kidnapping

Jury rejects prescription drug defence

ASan Bernardino County jury Wednesday rejected a controversial “Zoloft” defence presented by a former Westminster police detective accused of kidnapping and raping a waitress in 2010, finding the defendant guilty of all eight charges.

Anthony Nicholas Orban’s attorney acknowledged from the outset that his client attacked the woman, but argued that the former detective was rendered mentally “unconscious” by a powerful dose of the prescription antidepres- sant and was not responsible for his actions.

The jury of eight women and four men deliberated less than a day before dismissing that defence and finding Orban guilty of kidnapping, two counts of rape, two counts of forced oral copulation, two counts of sexual penetration with a foreign object and one count of making a criminal threat.

The victim sat in the front row of the packed courtroom, reacting with a subtle smile as Superior Court Judge Shahla S. Sabet read the guilty verdicts. The victim’s unflinching, graphic account of the sexual assault was the most compelling testimony given during the month-long trial.

Orban showed little emotion as the verdicts were read. His wife wept gently in the back of the courtroom.

Orban will face a sanity hearing to determine whether he knew the difference between right and wrong at the time of the attack. He almost certainly faces a life prison sentence if the jury determines he was sane. If declared insane, he would be sent to a state mental institution for treatment, and later could be released.

The same jurors will be impanelled for the sanity proceeding.

“What it comes down to is whether, at the time of this incident, he understood the difference between right and wrong,” Orban’s attorney, James Blatt of Los Angeles, said outside the courtroom. “I believe (the jury) will keep an open mind in reference to the sanity phase.”

The hearing is scheduled to begin Tuesday and testimony is expected to last two days.

The psychotropic effects of Zoloft again will be central to the sanity phase.