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Los Angeles Times

June 13, 2012

By Phil Willon

Anthony Nicholas Orban will next face a sanity hearing.  If found to be sane, he probably faces a life term.

A San Bernardino County jury Wednesday rejected a controversial “Zoloft” defense presented by a former Westminster police detective accused of kidnapping and raping a waitress in 2010, finding the defendant guilty of all eight charges.

Anthony Nicholas Orban’s attorney acknowledged from the outset that his client attacked the woman, but argued that the former detective was rendered mentally “unconscious” by a powerful dose of the prescription antidepressant and was not responsible for his actions.

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Detective and war vet who ‘raped woman for two hours and texted pictures to his friends’ claims he was driven insane by his anti-depressants

By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 22:16 GMT, 14 May 2012

The trial began today of a former California detective who allegedly raped a woman and texted pictures of his victim to a friend while he spent two hours beating and choking her.

Anthony Nicholas Orban, a Westminster Police Department detective and an Iraq war veteran, entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.

He claims that the combination of his post-traumatic stress disorder following his tour of duty and an over-prescription of anti-depressants made him kidnap and rape the woman.

Insane: Anthony Orban, 33, claims that his anti-depressants and PTSD lead to him having a temporary break from reality during the 2003 rape

Victims of sexual assault are not publicly identified so her name and age are not known, but she was allegedly forced into her car at gunpoint by Orban in the middle of the day on April 3, 2010 when she was leaving her job at the Ontario Mills Mall.

During what his lawyer described as a ‘psychotic break from reality’, Orban forced the woman to drive to a remote area of a Fontana business park.

There, Orban proceeded to rape, beat, choke and threaten to kill the woman for two hours.

The Orange County Register reports that during that time, Orban, who had no prior criminal record, texted photos to his high school friend Jeff Thomas Jelinek with the caption ‘Look what I’m doing’.

Accomplice: Orban reportedly texted photos to his high school friend Jeff Thomas Jelinek (pictured) with the caption ‘Look what I’m doing’

While he was distracted for a moment, the woman was able to get out of the car and run to a nearby liquor store where she asked the store clerk to call the police.

Jelinek, 33, a former state prison guard, is also charged in the crime, but because he was not physically present at the time of the attack, his charges are less significant than Orban’s, also 33.

After the woman ran off, Orban stole her keys and told Jelinek to pick him up nearb

Pals: High school friends Orban (left) and Jelinek (right) supposedly spent the day before the attack together, drinking heavily

In his haste, he left his police-issued gun, which had his name written on the barrel, a dislodged bullet, and his sunglasses in her car.

Both Jelinek, who later erased the the text messages in what prosecutors will call a cover-up attempt, and Orban were arrested later that evening after Orban’s wife reported her husband’s gun missing.

He was also positive identified from the victim.

Scene: Orban allegedly forced the woman into her car by gunpoint when she left her shift at California’s Ontario Mills Mall in broad daylight

The two men had allegedly spent the day before the attack together, drinking heavily.

Orban changed his plea- from the originally-submitted not guilty to not guilty by reason of insanity- last summer, claiming that the attack was a result of his excessive prescription of Zoloft, an anti-depressant, and Neurontin, an anti-seizure medication.

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Rapist found dead in his jail cell

Los Angeles Times

October 27, 2012

Andrew Khouri

Ex-detective, who blamed Zoloft for his crime, was set for sentencing.

A 26-year-old rape victim stood before a subdued San Bernardino County courtroom Friday, and read a carefully drafted statement addressed to the former Westminster police detective who kidnapped and raped her two years earlier.

“I forgive you,” she said, choking up.

But Anthony Orban, 33, was not there. Hours before, at 2:49 a.m., Orban was found unresponsive in his cell at the Central Detention Center in San Bernardino, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said.  He was declared dead at the scene.