Sexual Assault

A man who partially covered his face with a bandanna entered an apartment on Valencia Street in Costa Mesa, confronted an 18-year-old woman with a knife and then sexually assaulted her, police said Thursday. The man, who told the victim to not make any noise, fled through an open window in the victim's apartment about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday. It was unclear how the assailant gained access to the unit in the first place, but there were no signs of forced entry, Costa Mesa police said.

A 21-year-old Irvine man was sentenced Friday to 25 years to life in prison for sexually assaulting a woman in 2010, authorities said. Victor Gillespie's conviction in August was his third strike, according to prosecutors. Authorities said Gillespie entered an Irvine woman's home through an unlocked sliding door and went to her bedroom. The 24-year-old victim was lying down before he assaulted her, according to a news release from the Orange County district attorney's office.

An Anaheim man was sentenced Friday to 15 years to life in state prison for sexually assaulting a girl he connected with on MySpace and then met in Costa Mesa. Matthew Castaneda, 36, was also required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. Castaneda was found guilty May 14 of one felony account of aggravated sexual assault of a child and one felony count of lewd acts on a child under 14. He was also given a sentencing enhancement for a prior conviction of felony domestic violence and violating a restraining order, according to an Orange County district attorney's office news release.

Authorities are looking for sexual assault victims who they believe may have been targeted by a Newport Beach man. Adel Regragui, 42, is charged with three felonies of forcible rape, two felonies of forcible oral copulation, felony sexual penetration by force and sodomy by force. He faces up to 115 years in prison, if convicted, according to a news release from the Orange County district attorney's office. He is also facing sentencing enhancements for allegedly assaulting multiple victims and tying and binding another victim.

A former Ladera Ranch man pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges that he raped two women and sexually assaulted a third. Ali Achekzai, 33, who was on Orange County's 10 Most Wanted List until his extradition to the United States from Austria last summer, was arraigned at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana. Orange County Superior Court Judge Craig E. Robison set Achekzai's pre-trial for July 1 and his jury trial for Oct. 10. Achekzai is...

NEWPORT BEACH — A swim instructor from Irvine pleaded not guilty Friday to sexually assaulting a 15-year-old between April and February. Todd Robert Sousa, 36, is charged with 13 counts of felony lewd acts on a child, three counts of unlawful sexual intercourse and two misdemeanor counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Prosecutors said he had sex with the girl in his office, an equipment closet and his car. He met her while working as her swim instructor.

The sentencing hearing for Greg Haidl and two others convicted of multiple counts of sexual assault has been delayed till next month. Haidl, 20, Kyle Nachreiner, 21, and Keith Spann, 21, were convicted in March after two highly publicized trials. Haidl is the son of a former Orange County assistant sheriff. Orange County district attorney's office spokeswoman Susan Schroeder said Tuesday that a sentencing hearing has been postponed from Jan. 20 to Feb. 24 because a court-appointed psychologist needs more time to evaluate the three young men before sentencing.

The young woman who testified against Greg Haidl, the son of a former Orange County assistant sheriff, in a well-publicized sexual assault trial has reached a tentative settlement in her civil lawsuit. Attorney Sheldon Lodmer, who represents the plaintiff known only as Jane Doe, declined to specify the terms of the settlement and said the agreement still needed a judge’s approval. The settlement would resolve a lawsuit Doe filed in December 2005 against Haidl, co-defendants Kyle Nachreiner and Keith Spann, Haidl’s father, Don Haidl, and their defense team.

FOR THE RECORD A story Sunday, ?UCI police arrest man following sexual assault,? incorrectly spelled the name of campus spokesman Allan Taing. UC Irvine police officers arrested a man Saturday morning following a sexual assault near the campus several hours earlier. According to spokeswoman Susan Menning, police arrested Brian Timothy Russell, 21, of Irvine, at 8:57 a.m. and charged him with rape, forcible sexual penetration and oral copulation. The incident occurred around 1 a.m. in the area of Vista del Campo, a student apartment complex on Culver Drive.

His teammates call him fossil and at age 24, in his sixth year out of high school, UC Irvine senior Daman Starring might have more life experience than all but a few college basketball players. That that experience has not always been good, has only helped forge his character and status as a leader for the Anteaters, who open Big West Conference Tournament play Thursday against Hawaii at approximately 8:30 p.m. at Honda Center. "He has strong belief in himself and strong core values as a person," UCI Coach Russell Turner said of Starring, a second-team All-Big West performer who leads the Anteaters in scoring at 13.3 points per game.

A man who partially covered his face with a bandanna entered an apartment on Valencia Street in Costa Mesa, confronted an 18-year-old woman with a knife and then sexually assaulted her, police said Thursday. The man, who told the victim to not make any noise, fled through an open window in the victim's apartment about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday. It was unclear how the assailant gained access to the unit in the first place, but there were no signs of forced entry, Costa Mesa police said.

Don Haidl, a Newport Beach multi-millionaire and former assistant sheriff in Orange County who became a central figure in the corruption case against onetime Sheriff Michael Carona, has died. Haidl died late Tuesday at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach, said sheriff spokesman Jim Amormino. Haidl died of natural causes. He was 61. “Our brother passed away unexpectedly last night," his sister, Peggy Haidl, said in a statement. “He died as he lived, surrounded by people he loved.

The state agency that monitors judicial misconduct has publicly admonished an Orange County judge, saying his remarks in a sexual assault case breached judicial ethics and created an impression of bias against the victim. At a June 2008 sentencing hearing, Superior Court Judge Derek G. Johnson denied a prosecutor's call to impose a 16-year prison term on Metin Gurel, who had been convicted of rape, forcible oral copulation, domestic battery, stalking and making threats against his former live-in girlfriend.

A 25-year-old woman pleaded not guilty Monday to helping her then-fiance after he allegedly killed a man from Costa Mesa and a woman from Irvine, court records show. Rachel Mae Buffett, 25, of Long Beach, faces three felony counts of accessory after the fact in connection with the 2010 murders of Samuel Herr, 26, of Costa Mesa, and Juri "Julie" Kibuishi, 23, of Irvine, according to authorities. Her former fiance, Daniel Patrick Wozniak, 28, of Costa Mesa is accused of killing Herr at a theater at the military reserve base in Los Alamitos, dismembering and beheading his remains and leaving his body parts in a Long Beach park.

An Anaheim man was sentenced Friday to 15 years to life in state prison for sexually assaulting a girl he connected with on MySpace and then met in Costa Mesa. Matthew Castaneda, 36, was also required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. Castaneda was found guilty May 14 of one felony account of aggravated sexual assault of a child and one felony count of lewd acts on a child under 14. He was also given a sentencing enhancement for a prior conviction of felony domestic violence and violating a restraining order, according to an Orange County district attorney's office news release.

A UC Irvine professor accused of plotting mass murder at a local high school after his teenage son committed suicide was upset with the handling of the case, a colleague said. Police arrested Rainer Reinscheid, a 48-year-old professor at  UC Irvine , in connection with threats contained in emails as well as several arson fires he allegedly set. Acquaintances say Reinscheid had been furious at University High School for how it handled his son's death. "He was angry and unsatisfied with the investigation into his son's death," said Bruce Blumberg, a professor in Reinscheid's department at UC Irvine.

Police arrested a Costa Mesa man Saturday morning after he allegedly smoked a synthetic form of marijuana called "spice" and assaulted an elderly couple. Authorities said Matthew See, 23, was speaking gibberish and hanging out in front of a married couple's apartment in the 600 block of Baker Street when he stole the 70-year-old man's sunglasses and eventually forced his way into the man's home that he shares with his 69-year-old wife. See shoved the man to the ground outside the apartment before forcing his way into their home, where he assaulted the wife and forbade them from calling 911, police said.

The trial of a Costa Mesa man accused in a double murder case has been fast-tracked, prosecutors said Thursday. Daniel Patrick Wozniak, 28, is scheduled to be arraigned in a Santa Ana courtroom Friday on charges that he killed his neighbor, Samuel Herr, and Juri "Julie" Kibuishi, both Orange Coast College students, in May 2010, according to the Orange County district attorney's office. Prosecutors allege Wozniak killed Herr, who lived in his apartment building in Costa Mesa, in order to steal money from his bank account.

A fugitive who fled to Austria after raping and sexually assaulting women he met in Costa Mesa and Laguna Beach was convicted Thursday, prosecutors said. A man was been convicted Thursday of raping and sexually assaulting who raped and sexually assaulted women in Orange and San Diego Ccounties was convicted Thursday, authorities said. Ali Achekazi, 33, formerly of Ladera Ranch, was on the Orange County Ddistrict Aattorney's Most Wanted list until he was extradited from Austria in August of 2010, according to a news release from the D.A.'s office.