Fugitive Max Factor Heir Caught in Mexico

By RYAN PEARSON
.c The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Max Factor cosmetics heir and fugitive rapist Andrew Luster was captured Wednesday in Mexico, authorities said.

Ventura County district attorney's Investigator Richard Haas told The Associated Press that the FBI notified him early Wednesday that Luster, great-grandson of makeup legend Max Factor, was in custody.

He was captured in the resort town of Puerto Vallarta. When asked what would happen next, Haas said Luster apparently has no legal standing to be in Mexico and could be deported immediately.

Luster, 39, great-grandson of Hollywood makeup legend Max Factor, disappeared in January during a recess in his trial. He was convicted and sentenced in absentia to 124 years in prison for multiple counts of rape, poisoning and drug possession involving three women.

Neither Haas nor the Ventura County sheriff's department could immediately confirm that a Hawaii-based bounty hunter, Duane ``Dog'' Chapman, had found Luster. Chapman's office had contacted the media making that claim.

``This has been a long hunt,'' Chapman's executive assistant, Beth Smith, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Honolulu. Chapman had said earlier this year that he joined the high-profile search in hopes of earning part of Luster's forfeited $1 million bail.

Authorities said Luster, who lived off a trust fund and real estate investments, took three women to his home between 1996 and 2000 and raped them after giving them the so-called date-rape drug GHB.

A search of his home after his arrest in 2000 turned up videotapes of Luster having sex with women who appeared to be either asleep or unconscious. In one tape played in court after he disappeared, Luster is seen on camera having sex with a woman and declaring: ``That's exactly what I like in my room: A passed-out beautiful girl.''

His attorneys said the sex was consensual, suggesting the women were feigning sleep to help him film pornographic movies. They also had disputed that Luster was a fugitive and suggest he could have been abducted or involved in an accident.

Just last week, a California appellate court turned aside the appeal of Luster's conviction, saying he had forfeited his right to appeal by jumping bail.

Luster's attorney Roger Diamond said his client's return revives the appeal.

``Its significant if he's captured now, because it means he can go ahead and pursue his appeal,'' Diamond said Wednesday.


 
06/18/03 10:44 EDT
   

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