Actor Gabriel Olds has been arrested and charged with multiple violent sexual assaults, according to Los Angeles police, and investigators say they are looking for more potential victims.
Gabriel Olds' mugshot.
(Los Angeles Police)
The 52-year-old actor, who has appeared in television shows such as “Six Feet Under,” “NCIS” and the film “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” was booked into jail Wednesday morning on seven felony charges after a lengthy investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department. He is being held on $3.5 million bail.
Olds pleaded not guilty in airport court Thursday afternoon and was scheduled to appear in court again on Sept. 9.
Police began investigating Olds in January 2023 after a 41-year-old woman reported that Olds had raped her at his Los Angeles home, according to LAPD sex crimes detectives familiar with the case. Detectives later learned of two other women who had made similar allegations dating back to 2013. In each case, the women alleged that dating encounters with Olds led to violent sexual assaults.
The woman obtained a restraining order against Olds last year and detailed her encounter with the actor, according to court documents. The Times is not identifying her because it does not name victims of alleged sex crimes.
In the restraining order request, she alleges that Olds filmed and photographed a nonconsensual sexual encounter with her on January 7, 2023.
She also alleged that two weeks later, on January 19, 2023, Olds began choking her during sex and she “asked him to [him] To stop.”
“I fainted. I think he slapped me. [to] “Wake up,” he said in the court filing.
She said she woke up to find Olds putting on a condom and trying to “spread her legs” and claimed he stopped the assault only after she vomited on him.
Los Angeles Police Department Detective Brent Hopkins said Olds sexually assaulted three women, including the 41-year-old, in violent attacks, as well as two other women who reported less violent sexual conduct. In each case, the assault on the victims was “very similar” and it is those similarities that reinforce the allegations the victim made last year.
“We heard the same story over and over again,” Hopkins said. “Mr. Olds started out charming, but then he turned to brutal violence.”
“Some of these survivors suffered in silence for years before finding the strength to speak out,” Hopkins said.
Hopkins said because there was such a significant gap between the first two reported assaults in 2013 and the one last year, investigators suspect there are more victims. At the heart of these crimes is a lack of consent.
“There was a time when sexual assault was less understood… After #MeToo, there is a lot more awareness, especially with the Danny Masterson and Harvey Weinstein case,” she said. “People are more aware of what is right and what is not and are more willing to speak out.”
Authorities say Olds, a New York native who has been a screenwriter and actor on numerous occasions since the 1990s, used his status as a Yale-trained actor to lure the women, whom investigators say he typically met through dating apps. Police say Olds lured the women into feeling falsely secure during their initial encounters before becoming sexually violent.
Based on the Los Angeles Police Department's investigation, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office filed seven felony assault charges against Olds last month. A judge issued a warrant for his arrest shortly afterward.
The charges include rape, rape of an unconscious person, sodomy, assault with intent to commit rape and battery on a girlfriend or partner. Prosecutors say Olds raped one woman on March 15, 2013, and another on Sept. 1 of that year, as well as a third woman on Jan. 19, 2023.
Investigators hope to gain more leads with search warrants for Olds' various social media accounts and dating apps. Hopkins said the actor has lived in North Hollywood/Studio City for more than two decades but has worked on productions across the country.
