Rapist’s Defender Faulted

An attorney for a UC Irvine student convicted in July of torturing and raping a 15-year-old girl he met on the Internet said in a court hearing Friday that his client was misrepresent-ed by his previous lawyer.

In a bid for a new trial, defense attorney Stuart Faber argued in Orange County Superior Court that Brian Dance, 22, of Newport Beach did not receive a fair trial because his lawyer failed to conduct a thorough investigation and did not present Dance’s side of the story.

That attorney, Marlin Stapleton Jr., a 20-year veteran with a clean record with the state bar, said the case was tough because Dance confessed during a police interrogation the day he was arrested.

“After listening to the tape, there goes the defense,” said Stapleton who testified for nearly three hours. “He never came close to telling me it was consensual. He did it because he was mad at her.”

Following a three-day, non-jury trial, Judge Frank Fasel convicted Dance in July of rape, forced oral copulation, robbery, criminal threats and torture.

Prosecutors said he met the girl, who is not being named because she is a minor and a rape victim, at the Block in Orange and drove her to a deserted UC Irvine parking lot. During the two-hour attack, he held a knife to her throat and threatened to kill her, then covered her eyes and bound her wrists with duct tape. Dance raped her, whipped her with his belt and tried to carve swastikas on her face.

He was arrested three days later.