Max Factor Heir In Date Rape Bust

An heir to the Max Factor cosmetics fortune was charged with 40 sex, drug and weapons counts for allegedly slipping date-rape drugs to three women and sexually assaulting them at his beach house.

A judge on Wednesday ordered Andrew Stuart Luster, 36, held on $10 million bail after a third woman came forward and prosecutors added 19 new counts to the 21 he already faced. Previously, bail had been set at $1 million.

"There is no question Mr. Luster is a clear and present danger to women," Superior Court Judge Art Gutierrez said. "I am satisfied the defendant is a threat."

He remained jailed Thursday.

Prosecutors have said that Luster, a great-grandson of makeup company founder Max Factor, videotaped his victims.

Among the items seized during a search of his home last week were photographs and homemade videos, plus 13 guns, including an illegal AK-47 assault rifle, several small bottles of an unknown liquid, and cocaine, authorities said.

"We believe the defendant presents a very serious and credible threat," Deputy District Attorney Becky Day said in court.

Day had ask the judge to have Luster held without bail, arguing that he poses a flight risk because of his family's assets. She produced a copy of a financial statement indicating that Luster has $8 million in a stock portfolio.

Defense attorney Joel Isaacson said Luster does not have access to the portfolio and earns less than $70,000 a year handling his own investments.

Luster, the father of two, has no criminal record and has lived in Ventura County for 15 years.

Though no formal plea has been entered, Luster's attorney said he "absolutely denies the charges" and claims sex he has had over the years with women was consensual.

Luster was arrested last week after a Santa Barbara woman claimed he slipped her a date-rape drug after she met him at a bar. The woman said she was sexually assaulted July 15 at Luster's home. Two other women came forward since then, the most recent a 27-year-old former girlfriend who said she was assaulted in 1996 or 1997.