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Match.com Sex Battery Suspect Sentenced
Posted by Daniel Antolin on Sep 19, 2011 - 11:47:34 PM
Alan Paul Wurtzel booking photo courtesy of LAPD.
PACIFIC PALISADES—On Monday, September 19, a Pacific Palisades man who in August plead no contest in Los
Angeles Superior Court to a felony sexual battery by restraint charge was sentenced to one year in prison.
Sixty-seven-year-old Alan Paul Wurtzel was also sentenced to five years of formal probation, has to register as a sex offender and complete one year of counseling, according to the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office. He is not currently listed in the State of California Department of Justice's registry of sex offenders.
Wurtzel was initially charged with sexually assaulting Carole Markin, a
53-year-old Hollywood television producer and author he met on
Match.com in early 2010. After Wurtzel drove Markin home from Urth Cafe
on Melrose after a second date on May 20, 2010, he allegedly followed
the woman into her residence, where he held her down while sexually
assaulting her. His attorney previously told media outlets that the
incident was consensual.
What prompted Wurtzel to plead no contest was a deal reached with
prosecutors to dismiss one initial count of forcible oral copulation,
said Jane Robison, a press secretary with the district attorney's
office, in an August press release.
Sexual assault victims are not usually identified by authorities. In
this case, Markin revealed her identity to the public after filing a
lawsuit against Match.com. On May 4, Markin sought a temporary
restraining order to prevent the website from signing up users until it
established an effective screening process, court documents state.
Markin previously told media outlets that she checked the national sex
offender registry after the incident and discovered that Wurtzel had
been a registrant six separate times. She claimed to file the lawsuit so
that no other Match.com user could be similarly victimized.
In response to the lawsuit being filed in April, Match.com announced a
few days later that new users would be checked versus the national sex
offender registry within 60 to 90 days of them signing up. This is why
the temporary restraining order request was dismissed. But the website formally agreed in August to start checking new users against local and national sex offender registries to settle the lawsuit with Markin.
Court documents state that Markin cancelled her six-month Match.com
subscription in January 2011, but later subscribed again for the
purposes of filing the lawsuit. But Markin said she had no intention to
contact other subscribers of the dating website.
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Laurel Canyon, Los Feliz, Malibu, Pacific Palisades, Melrose,
Santa Monica, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Topanga Canyon, West Hollywood,
Woodland Hills, Westwood & Hollywood Hills.
