RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. (AP) –A former Westminster police detective who blamed the antidepressant Zoloft for his behavior was found guilty last Wednesday of kidnapping and raping a waitress at gunpoint in a brutal attack, prosecutors said.
A San Bernardino County jury will now have to determine whether Marine war veteran Anthony Nicholas Orban was sane at the time of the attack.
Orban’s attorney argued during trial that his client suffered a psychotic break because he was taking Zoloft and was effectively unconscious when he kidnapped the woman in the Ontario Mills mall parking lot in San Bernardino County.
Prosecutors say the off-duty officer used his service weapon to force the woman to drive to a self-storage lot where he sexually assaulted her and shoved a gun in her mouth. The woman escaped from the April 3, 2010, attack when Orban was distracted by an incoming cellphone call, prosecutors said.
Orban, who is 32, had pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity to eight counts including kidnap and rape. However, defense attorney James Blatt said in court that he intended to argue Orban was not guilty by reason of unconsciousness.
Deputy District Attorney Debbie Ploghaus declined to comment on the verdict, noting the trial is still under way and the sanity phase begins Tuesday. A message left for Blatt was not immediately returned.
The woman, who was 25 at the time of the attack, testified that Orban sexually assaulted her, punched her, choked her, stuck a gun in her mouth and took cellphone photos of her.
She told jurors that the attacker did not appear disoriented or unconscious, the San Bernardino Sun reported. But she also testified that at the end of the attack, he looked at her and asked: “Who are you? How did I get here? Whose car is this?’’
A friend of Orban’s, Jeff Jelinek, testified against him. Prosecutors said the former prison guard and Orban had been drinking at the mall and Jelinek was standing next to Orban during the kidnapping and picked him up after the attack.
In a plea deal with prosecutors, Jelinek pleaded no contest last year to being an accessory, false imprisonment and assault.
Prozac® has been linked to birth defects, including persistent pulmonary hypertension (PPHN). PPHN is a serious potentially life-threatening condition that occurs in babies soon after birth. The lungs of these infants have not assumed the function of oxygenating the blood once they are born. When in the mother, the fetus’ oxygenated blood supply comes from the mother, via the umbilical cord that leads from the placenta. The lungs of the fetus have no immediate function and are just awaiting birth to start working.
Flood Law Group