Veteran actor lured in women, sexually assaulted them: Police
(LOS ANGELES) — An actor is accused of luring at least three women into a “false sense of security” then violently sexually assaulting them without their consent, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Gabriel Olds, 52, was arrested and booked on seven felony sexual assault charges on Wednesday, LAPD said. His bail is set at $3.5 million.
Police are asking additional alleged victims of Olds or witnesses to the incidents to come forward.
On Jan. 19, 2023, a 41-year-old woman reported that Olds raped her in her home in LA. Two other adult victims later came forward and made similar reports dating back to 2013, describing consensual dating encounters that allegedly ended in violent sexual assault, police said.
Olds, a Yale University graduate, has worked as an actor and screenwriter dating back to the early 1990s, according to police. He has made many one-off guest appearances in popular shows like “Criminal Minds,” “Heroes,” “Boardwalk Empire” and “NCIS: Los Angeles.”
His victims reported that he used his status as an Ivy League alumnus to meet women and arrange dates, police said. Several women in recent years have also reported meeting him on dating applications.
Police said they have identified three women that Olds allegedly assaulted and two other women who reported lesser violent sexual conduct. Investigators believe there could be more victims nationwide due to Old’s travels.
“We heard the same story again and again,” LAPD detective Brent Hopkins said in a statement. “Mr. Olds started off charming, but then used brutal violence to carry out these rapes. Some of these survivors suffered in silence for years before finding the strength to speak up. Now that he’s off the streets, we want to make sure everyone has a chance to be heard.”
(NEW YORK) — Sean “Diddy” Combs is expected to learn Wednesday afternoon whether he will continue to be held without bail on charges including sex trafficking by force, transportation to engage in prostitution and racketeering conspiracy.
The music mogul’s attorney, Marc Agnifilo, appealed Judge Robyn Tarnofsky’s Tuesday decision to detain the 54-year-old pending trial. The appeal hearing is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET Wednesday.
Combs is alleged to have run an “enterprise that he engaged in sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson and other crimes,” according to the indictment unsealed Tuesday.
Federal prosecutors said Combs “abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct” from 2008 to the present. The allegations mirror 11 civil complaints filed against him since 2023.
Explaining the decision to deny Combs bail, Tarnofsky said: “My concern is that this is a crime that happens behind closed doors.”
Federal prosecutors argued that Combs poses an ongoing threat to the community.
“The defendant also poses a significant risk of obstructing justice,” prosecutors said. “During the course of the charged conduct, the defendant has attempted to bribe security staff and threatened and interfered with witnesses to his criminal conduct.”
“He has already tried to obstruct the Government’s investigation of this case, repeatedly contacting victims and witnesses and feeding them false narratives of events,” prosecutors added.
“There are simply no conditions that would ensure that the defendant’s efforts to obstruct and tamper with witnesses will stop,” prosecutors said.
Agnifilo asked the judge to release Combs on a $50 million bail package, disputing the prosecutors’ characterization of his client as a flight risk. The lawyer said Combs arrived in New York on Sept. 5 and “came here to face it.”
Agnifilo said Combs is trying to sell his private plane. Agnifilo said he took possession of his client’s passport and those of five of his relatives.
He also argued that when Combs took two trips — to a graduation party for one of his children and a whitewater rafting trip — “we told the government where he was going.”
“Trust has to be earned and we have earned it,” he told the judge.
(NEW YORK) — An OceanGate whistleblower testified during a United States Coast Guard hearing into the deadly 2023 implosion of the Titan that he had “no confidence” in the way the experimental submersible was being built.
David Lochridge, the former director of marine operations for OceanGate, said he was known as a “troublemaker” in the tourism and expeditions company because he was so outspoken about his safety concerns — voiced years before five people were killed when the Titan catastrophically imploded during a deep-sea voyage to the Titanic wreckage in June 2023.
Lochridge said Tuesday during an ongoing Coast Guard hearing into the deadly implosion that he was hired in 2015 to in part work on the operations for the Titan but was ultimately not involved in its development. Lochridge said he was “phased out” after butting heads with OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush — one of the five people who died in the implosion.
When asked by the Marine Board of Investigation for the U.S. Coast Guard if he had confidence in the way the Titan was being built in 2017, Lochridge said, “No confidence whatsoever, and I was very vocal about that, and still am.”
Lochridge submitted a report in January 2018 outlining his concerns about the submersible’s carbon-fiber hull, including imperfections, after he said Rush asked him to inspect it.
“At the end of the day, safety comes first,” Lochridge said. “Yes, you’re taking a risk going down in a submersible, but don’t take risks that are unnecessary with faulty, and I mean faulty, deficient equipment.”
Lochridge testified Rush “liked to do things on the cheap.” Asked why the company resorted to cost-cutting measures, Lochridge said, “The desire to get to the Titanic as quickly as we could to start making profit.”
He said he did not know about the financial side of the company, but that “there was a big push to get this done.”
“A lot of steps along the way were missed,” he said.
Lochridge testified that Rush wanted to do manned testing of the first Titan prototype, though Lochridge recommended doing unmanned testing due to his concerns.
“I knew that hull would fail,” he said. “It’s an absolute mess.”
Lochridge was fired from OceanGate in 2018, days after submitting his report and attending an hourslong meeting with OceanGate executives, including Rush, ABC News previously reported. Documents reviewed by ABC News stated that it was clear Lochridge and Rush were “at an impasse” regarding the Titan hull, and “the only option was the termination of your employment.”
Lochridge testified Tuesday he was terminated because he was “anti-project.”
“I didn’t want to lose my job,” Lochridge said. “I wanted to go to Titanic. It was on my bucket list. I wanted to dive this, but dive it safely.”
Following his termination, Lochridge said he reached out to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in February 2018 with his concerns about public safety and was placed under the agency’s Whistleblower Protection Program. Recent Stories from ABC News
“I wouldn’t want to see anybody dying for the sake of going in a sub,” Lochridge said Tuesday. “It’s a magical place. I love it. I’m very passionate about what I do. If there’s risk like that, don’t do it.”
A defect was discovered in the first prototype of the carbon-fiber hull in 2019, and it was not used on Titanic missions, the Coast Guard said.
A second carbon-fiber hull was subsequently made that was used on Titanic missions, including the doomed dive on June 18, 2023.
OceanGate suspended all exploration and commercial operations after the implosion.
The Coast Guard’s hearing into the implosion is scheduled to last two weeks. Lochridge is the only witness scheduled to testify on Tuesday.
During his testimony, Lochridge said he started being phased out of his duties after he inadvertently “embarrassed” Rush during a 2016 dive to the Andrea Doria shipwreck on OceanGate’s Cyclops 1 submersible.
Lochridge, a veteran submersible pilot, said he was meant to take several paying clients down to the wreck to take a 3-D model, but Rush wanted to pilot the dive instead. Lochridge said he objected, noting that the wreck is “dangerous” and that over a dozen people died during dives to the site at the time — and eventually persuaded Rush to let him go along.
He said Rush ended up getting the vessel stuck in the wreck and refused to relinquish control of the submersible to Lochridge until one of the crew members yelled at Rush to give Lochridge the PlayStation controller that piloted the vessel.
Lochridge said Rush threw the controller at his head and one of the buttons came off, though he testified that he was able to repair it and get them back to the surface.
After that, Lochridge said Rush stopped talking to him.
Lochridge testified he raised objections after OceanGate phased out its relationship with the University of Washington’s Applied Physics Laboratory in 2016. He said Rush decided to do all engineering for the Titan in-house.
Asked by the board why that was the case, Lochridge said, “Arrogance.”
He also testified the company only cared about making money and it wasn’t interested in scientific research.
“The whole idea behind the company was to make money, that’s it,” Lochridge said. “There was very little in the way of science.”
OceanGate sued Lochridge following his termination, alleging, among other things, breach of contract, fraud and misappropriation of trade secrets. Lochridge alleged in a counterclaim lawsuit that he was fired for raising concerns about quality control.
During the hearing on Tuesday, Lochridge said he dropped his OSHA case and walked away from the lawsuits in late 2018 because he didn’t want to “put my family through any more of this,” financially and emotionally.
“It was going nowhere,” he said. “It was too much for us as a family.”
Lochridge and OceanGate settled the dispute out of court in November 2018. Lochridge said OSHA closed the case in December 2018 following the settlement agreement.
“I never paid a penny to OceanGate, I’m going to state that clearly,” Lochridge said Tuesday. “I gave them nothing, they gave me nothing.”
In his final remarks, Lochridge said he hopes the investigation will shed light on “why OSHA did not actively address my concerns.”
“I believe that if OSHA had attempted to investigate the seriousness of the concerns I raised on multiple occasions, this tragedy may have been prevented,” he said. “As a seafarer, I feel deeply let down and disappointed by the system that is meant to protect not only seafarers but the general public as well.”
ABC News has reached out to OSHA for comment. OSHA had previously declined to comment to ABC News on the case.
The Coast Guard hearing is scheduled to resume on Thursday, with testimony from the company’s former scientific director and a crew member who was on board OceanGate’s 2016 dive to the Andrea Doria shipwreck.
(NEW YORK) — Hurricane Debby is roaring across Florida as a Category 1 hurricane after making landfall Monday morning.
Here’s what to expect:
Flash flood warnings have been issued from Cedar Key, Florida, to Venice, Florida.
More than 10 inches of rain already fell in the Tampa area and more than 1 foot of rain was recorded just south of Sarasota.
On Monday, Debby will bring very heavy rain from Gainesville and Jacksonville, Florida, up to Savannah, Georgia, where more than 20 inches of rain is possible.
The storm surge will be the highest — up to 10 feet — in Florida’s Big Bend area, from Keaton Beach to Cedar Key.
By Tuesday, Debby is expected to stall over the Southeast, bringing potentially historic rainfall to Georgia and South Carolina. Up to 30 inches of rain is possible through Thursday.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has issued a rare “high risk” warning for extreme flooding in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina over the next two days.
The rainfall from Debby may approach Georgia’s record of 27.85 inches from Tropical Storm Alberto in 1994.
Debby’s remnants could then move up to North Carolina and Virginia by Friday and this weekend.