CBS News
Israel marks one year since deadly Oct. 7 attack by Hamas
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
A man accused of drugging and sexually assaulting nine women at his homes in Los Angeles County, allegedly killing one of the victims as she died from being drugged, is facing more than a dozen felony charges, prosecutors said Friday.
Michael DiGiorgio, 50, allegedly committed the assaults between May 2019 and November 2021 at his homes in Redondo and Hermosa Beach, according to the LA County District Attorney’s Office. He has been charged with 18 felony counts including murder, forcible rape and rape of an unconscious person, prosecutors said, and faces up to life in state prison if convicted of all charges.
Prosecutors have also filed a special allegation that he caused great bodily injury to a victim during the furnishing of a controlled substance, which carries a sentencing enhancement under California Penal Code Section 12022.7.
DiGiorgio was scheduled to be arraigned at a courthouse in downtown Los Angeles on Friday. CBS News Los Angeles has reached out to the DA’s office for information on how he pleaded.
Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
No other details about the alleged crimes or the investigation were released by the DA’s office in a statement.
“I extend my deepest sympathy to the victims, whose lives have been irrevocably changed and the life lost by the alleged brutal acts of the offender,” District Attorney George Gascón said in the statement. “I encourage anyone with information related to these incidents or any other incidents regarding Mr. DiGiorgio to report it to the Redondo Beach Police Department.”
Prosecutors released a photo of DiGiorgio as investigators believe there could be more victims out there.
The charges filed against him include:
- one count of murder
- one felony count of forcible rape
- two felony counts of forcible sexual penetration
- three felony counts of rape by use of a drug
- two felony counts of sodomy by use of a drug
- five felony counts of sexual penetration by use of a drug
- one felony count of oral copulation by use of a drug
- one felony count of rape of an unconscious person
- two felony counts of furnishing a controlled substance
The Sex Crimes Division of the DA’s office and Redondo Beach Police Department are investigating the case. Anyone who may be a victim or has other information is asked to reach Redondo Beach police at 714-863-2859.
Philip G. Zimbardo, the psychologist behind the controversial “Stanford Prison Experiment” that was intended to examine the psychological experiences of imprisonment, has died. He was 91.
Stanford University announced Friday that Zimbardo died Oct. 14 at his home in San Francisco. A cause of death was not provided.
In the 1971 prison study, Zimbardo and a team of graduate students recruited college-aged males to spend two weeks in a mock prison in the basement of a building on the Stanford campus.
The study was ended after six days as the students playing guards became psychologically abusive and those playing prisoners became anxious, emotionally depressed and enraged, according to the Stanford statement.
Zimbardo was criticized for taking the role of superintendent – becoming an active participant in the study and no longer a neutral observer.
“The outcome of our study was shocking and unexpected,” Zimbardo would later co-write with one of the graduate students who was part of the project.
The experiment is now used in psychology classes to study the psychology of evil and the ethics of psychological research with human subjects, Stanford said.
Zimbardo’s research also included persuasion, hypnosis, cults, shyness, time perspective, altruism, and compassion, Stanford said.
Zimbardo is survived by his wife, Christina Maslach Zimbardo, three children and four grandchildren.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami says Hurricane Oscar has formed off the coast of the Bahamas.
Oscar, which the hurricane center characterized as “tiny,” formed Saturday. Oscar – the 15th named storm of the hurricane season – formed as a tropical storm just east of the Turks and Caicos islands, before quickly becoming a hurricane.
The government of the Bahamas has issued a hurricane warning for the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeastern Bahamas. The government of Cuba has issued a hurricane watch for the provinces of Guantanamo, Holguin, and Las Tunas.
Turks and Caicos and southeastern Bahamas can expect heavy rainfall later tonight and tomorrow, the hurricane center said. Rains are expected to spread to eastern Cuba on Sunday.
National Hurricane Center
The storm’s maximum sustained winds were clocked at 80 mph with higher gusts. Its center was located about 165 miles east-southeast of the southeastern Bahamas and about 470 miles east of Camaguey, Cuba.
Tropical Storm Nadine formed hours earlier in the western Caribbean and is moving westward toward Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. It made landfall near Belize City in Belize around 12 p.m. Eastern.
Heavy rain and tropical storm conditions were occurring over parts of Belize and the Yucatan peninsula.
A tropical storm warning is in effect for Belize City and from Belize to Cancun, Mexico, including Cozumel.
The Atlantic hurricane season officially began on June 1 and finishes Nov. 30, with most activity occurring between mid-August and mid-October. Hurricane activity tends to peak in mid-September, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
In Florida, Gulf Coast communities are struggling in the wake of back-to-back hurricanes, as Hurricane Helene rammed into the region less than two weeks before Hurricane Milton arrived.
