Trigger Warning: This article contains references to the sexual abuse that some readers may find distressing.
What happens when your protector turns into your stalker? The horrors experienced by Erinn Orcutt more than a decade ago still send shivers down her spine. Orcutt, a single mother and cocktail waitress, was abducted by a police officer as she left her job early in Ontario, California.
“At the time, I would spend my weeks with my son, and on the weekends, I would be at work pretty much from Thursday night to Sunday afternoon,” Orcutt told Crime Watch Daily, recalling the incident.
On the fateful afternoon in April 2010, there were not many customers at the restaurant, and she had the evening to herself. As she got into her SUV, a stranger named Anthony Orban held her at gunpoint and forced her to drive. He had an accomplice, Jeffrey Jelinek. Erinn recalled that he left his accomplice behind.
“I got in the car, he got in the passenger seat, and told me to drive. He didn’t tell me where to drive, and since I grew up in the area, I knew of a few places where cops tended to hang out,” she said. “So, I figured I would try to steer that direction. I contemplated driving my car off the road or ramming into somebody else or just putting it in park and running. I pleaded with him. Just, you know, you can take my car. I’m not worried about it. I won’t call the cops. Just take my car and let me out.”
As the car pulled into a storage unit, Erinn felt relieved, knowing the area was pretty crowded and nothing was going to happen. However, her nightmare was far from over as he forced himself on her in the backseat and ordered her to take her clothes off.
“He ended up putting the gun to my head and told me to stop crying. He actually racked the gun, and a bullet popped out and landed in the seat. I knew the gun was fully loaded,” she said.
“He had me sit on top of his lap, and he tried to penetrate me, but he couldn’t do it… he was taking pictures the entire time. And I looked up, and he smiled, and he snapped again, and then he told me to smile pretty and took a picture of me without my clothes on.”
She said he texted the lewd photos to his accomplice and was talking to him on the phone. However, soon rage took over him.
“He’d just stare at me. He’d just dead-eyed and just hit me. Sock me in the face a few times…he had me get on my stomach, and he tried to rape me from behind. He really couldn’t.”
After an hour Orban eventually told Erinn he was going to drive her to the desert to “finish this,” making her realize he planned to kill her. When Orban’s phone rang and his gun slipped onto the floor, Erinn took advantage and unlocked her side door, ran into a nearby liquor store screaming for help, and the owner took her inside and hid her.
Orban tried to steal her car, but it had a kill switch and wouldn’t start. He fled on foot, accidentally leaving behind his gun, which had a name taped, sunglasses, clothes, and biological evidence.
Detectives traced Anthony Orban, an active police officer assigned to s*x crimes investigations. His accomplice, Jelinek, was a state correctional officer.
Orban pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. However, the jury rejected his defense. He was convicted on eight felony counts, including kidnapping and r*pe. Jelinek pleaded no contest and received a five-year sentence.
“I was pissed. So pissed. So many people are on Zoloft, and they’re not going to go off, and r*pe somebody and kidnap them at gunpoint. It was an excuse. It was excuse after excuse after excuse. And it was all about him being the victim,” Erinn said.
On the day of his sentencing, where the judge intended to give him over 80 years to life in prison, Orban hanged himself in his jail cell.
The judge allowed Orcutt to read her victim impact statement, and Orban’s family stayed in court out of respect and listened.
“No amount of reasoning can justify the horrors that I was forced to endure that day, and those who tried should be ashamed of themselves. I am disappointed that a person in your position would have behaved in such a way and that you tried to get away with it instead of owning up to your actions like a real man.”
“But then, a real man would never have kidnapped, r*ped, beaten, and terrorized a woman. I choose to live my life and take back any power that your actions may have had over me.
To do so, I have to do something that I have struggled with and never thought I would be able to do. I forgive you.”
Disclaimer: The Inquisitr could not independently confirm the facts of this incident and is reporting based on the information available within the public video record.
