SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — A jury returned several guilty verdicts Friday against a La Jolla restaurant owner accused of raping eight women who he either drugged or knew were too intoxicated to consent to sex.
Jurors found 61-year-old Daniel Dorado guilty of 20 counts in connection with alleged rapes that happened in 2009, 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2018.
Some of the counts Doroado was found guilty of include two counts of rape of an unconscious person; two counts of rape of an intoxicated person; two counts of assault with intent to commit rape, sodomy oral copulation or sexual penetration of an unconscious or intoxicated person; two counts of sexual penetration of an unconscious person with an unknown object; and two counts of sexual penetration of an intoxicated person with an unknown object.
Dorado had faced 35 felony counts. The jury acquitted him on three counts, deadlocked on six counts, and have not yet reached verdicts on six remaining counts. They will reconvene Dec. 30 to deliberate the remaining counts.
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Prosecutors say as the owner of La Jolla's Voce del Mare, an Italian restaurant on La Jolla Boulevard, Dorado would meet his victims at local bars and restaurants some times under the assumption they were interviewing for a position at his restaurant or through dating websites.
Dorado allegedly offered the woman spiked drinks, causing them to fall unconscious and later awake in the middle of or just after sex acts with him.
He was arrested in March 2018 on suspicious of assaults against four women, before more women came forward.
Dorado's defense attorney argued throughout the trial that there was no proof drugs, force, or threats were used on his client's behalf and that each encounter was consensual.
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