Politics & Government

Judge Orders Serial Rapist to Mental Hospital Indefinitely

The White House restaurant in Laguna Beach was the setting for one attack in 1987.

A convicted rapist who attacked a Laguna Beach woman and three others has been committed to a mental hospital indefinitely after a jury found him to be a sexually violent predator, officials said  Wednesday.

Following a one-month trial, a jury this week found that Dougal Samuels fit the legal standard for a sexual violent predator, meaning he will be committed to a mental health facility until he can show he no longer poses a threat to society.

Samuels, 55, was convicted in 1989 of raping two women and sexually assaulting another two after meeting them at bars in Orange County, according to the District Attorney's Office. Samuels was sentenced in 1989 to 18 years in prison, but has been in the custody of the Department of Mental Health since 1996, according to prosecutors.

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The assault in Laguna Beach happened in the late evening on July 28, 1987, when Samuels approached a 29-year-old woman who was having dinner with friends at the White House restaurant in Laguna Beach. Shortly thereafter, the woman's friends left and Samuels offered to walk the victim to her car and asked for a ride to where his vehicle was parked in the nearby residential area.

Samuels was unable to direct the victim to his car and asked her to stop the vehicle because a friend’s home was nearby. When she stopped and placed her car in park, Samuels tried to rape the victim by jumping on top of her and choking her. The victim continued to struggle and was able to eventually escape and reported the sexual assault to police.

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In an attack in Costa Mesa in August 1987, Samuels met a woman at Marcel's in Costa Mesa for dinner after approaching the victim while out with friends at a bar weeks earlier. After dinner, Samuels told the victim he had consumed too much alcohol and needed her to follow him in her car to a nearby motel to ensure his safe arrival.

Upon registering for a room, he asked her to come up to talk about shared Christian values. Once inside the room, Samuels turned the lights off and undressed while the victim was in the bathroom. As the victim opened the bathroom door, Samuels attacked and raped her. During the struggle, he beat and choked the victim, cutting off her ability to breathe. After the assault, the victim was able to flee and contact police.

Samuels has admitted raping several women in Illinois in the early 1980s.

In the civil commitment trial, Samuels claimed that surgery had made him too frail to ever rape again, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.

But Orange County prosecutors called witnesses from Coalinga State Hospital, where he had been confined, who testified that he regularly worked out and played basketball, The Times reported.

The four women he assaulted also testified at the trial.

City News Service contributed to this report.


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