LOS ANGELES — A Santa Barbara County judge on Tuesday dismissed charges against Hollywood producer David Guillod, who was accused of sexually assaulting actress Jessica Barth and a waitress.
The prosecutor said she had no choice but to drop the cases and refer them back to Los Angeles County after she could not prove that four other victims were attacked in her jurisdiction.
The Santa Barbara County district attorney’s office announced the decision to drop the charges involving two victims in a Santa Maria court. The decision came a few weeks after a judge in Santa Maria, at the conclusion of a preliminary hearing, found there was insufficient evidence to try Guillod on sexual assault and rape charges involving four victims in Santa Barbara County between 2014 and 2020.
That same judge, however, found sufficient evidence to support a trial on eight sexual assault charges in connection with a 2012 attack on “Ted” actress Barth and a 2018 incident with the unidentified Los Angeles waitress, who said she was raped and sodomized.
But on Tuesday, the Santa Barbara County prosecutor handling the case said the remaining two alleged victims were sexually assaulted in Los Angeles County.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Jennifer Karapetian said those two remaining cases have been “referred back to Los Angeles County for them to decide whether or not charges will be filed.” “We no longer have jurisdiction to move forward with the other counts,” she told a judge in Santa Maria. Karapetian told a judge Tuesday that it will now be up to LA County Dist. Atty George Gascon’s office to decide whether to proceed and refile charges
Philip K. Cohen, one of the producer’s attorneys, asked Santa Maria Judge Gustavo E. Lavayen to dismiss the remaining charges rather than wait until Los Angeles prosecutors decide what to do.
Guillod, 55, a talent manager and producer of “Atomic Blonde” and Netflix’s, “Extraction,” was arrested in 2020 after a three-year investigation involving Santa Barbara County investigators and the Los Angeles police. He was charged with rape and sexual assaults involving six women in separate incidents.
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In the case of Barth, Guillod was charged with sexual penetration of an unconscious or unaware victim, sexual penetration of a drugged victim, oral copulation of an intoxicated victim, and oral copulation of an unconscious or unaware victim in connection with the alleged attack on May 21, 2012. In her case and the unidentified waitress, if he was found guilty of those eight counts, the 55-year-old Hollywood super manager could have received 12 years in prison.
“This is a bittersweet day. After a long and arduous battle, it is of course a great relief to finally put an end to this criminal case,” Cohen said in a statement. “The success we achieved at the preliminary hearing leading to this dismissal is a testament to both our strategic decision to present the bulk of our case at this early stage of the proceeding.”
The Santa Barbara criminal case suffered a massive setback last month when Judge James Voysey dismissed all the counts related to four accusers, who authorities alleged were raped by Guillod in Santa Barbara County while they were intoxicated and unconscious. The judge questioned the credibility of the women.
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Voysey said he did not believe the women based on what they did in the hours and days following their alleged assaults.
During the proceedings, the women were identified by the aliases Jane Doe 1 through 6. Voysey said he couldn’t believe Jane Doe 1, a young assistant was raped by Guillod in December 2014 because the 21-year-old woman continued to participate at a work retreat in Santa Barbara’s wine country rather than leave.
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