Actor Gabriel Olds has been arrested and charged with multiple violent sexual assaults, according to Los Angeles police, and investigators say they are searching for more potential victims.
Mugshot of Gabriel Olds.
(LAPD)
The 52-year-old actor who appeared in TV shows such as “Six Feet Under,” “NCIS” and the movie “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 in lieu of $3.5-million bail.
On Thursday afternoon, Olds pleaded not guilty at the Airport Courthouse and was slated to be back in court on Sept. 9.
Police began investigating Olds in January 2023 after a 41-year-old woman reported that he had raped her at her L.A. home, according to LAPD sex crimes detectives familiar with the case. Detectives later learned of two more women who had made similar allegations dating back to 2013. In each case, the women alleged that dating encounters with Olds descended into 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 sexual crimes.
In the request for the restraining order, she alleges that Olds filmed and photographed a nonconsensual sexual encounter with her on Jan. 7, 2023.
She also alleged that two weeks later, on Jan. 19, 2023, Olds began to choke her during sex and she “asked [him] to stop.”
“I blacked out. I think he slapped me [to] wake up,” she said in the court filing.
She said she awoke to find Olds putting on a condom and trying to “open my legs” and alleged that he stopped the assault only after she vomited on him.
LAPD Det. Brent Hopkins said that 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 bolster the allegations the victim made last year.
“We heard the same story again and again,” Hopkins said. “Mr. Olds started off charming, but then used brutal violence.”
“Some of these survivors suffered in silence for years before finding the strength to speak up,” Hopkins said.
Hopkins said that because there is a such a considerable span 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 there wasn’t as much understanding about sex assault. … Post #MeToo, there is much more awareness, especially with the Danny Masterson and Harvey Weinstein case,” he said. “People are more aware of what is OK and what’s not and are more willing to speak up.”
Authorities say Olds, a New York native with screenwriting credits and numerous acting parts dating to the 1990s, used his status as a Yale-educated actor to entice the women, whom investigators said he typically met through dating applications. Police say Olds lured the women into a false sense of security during their initial encounters before turning sexually violent.
Based on the LAPD investigation, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office filed seven felony assault charges against Olds last month. A warrant for his arrest was issued soon after by a judge.
The charges include rape, rape of an unconscious person, sodomy, assault with intent to commit rape and injury on a girlfriend or significant other. 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 are hoping to develop further leads with search warrants for Olds’ various social media and dating applications accounts. Hopkins said the actor has lived in North Hollywood/Studio City for more than two decades but has worked all over the country on productions.