Jury acquits Newport man of multiple rape counts

A Newport Beach man accused of raping or trying to rape seven women he met on the party circuit in the city was acquitted Thursday of most of the charges leveled against him.

Orange County Superior Court jurors cleared Adel Regragui, 46, of a dozen felonies related to sexual assault but deadlocked on seven others, according to court records.

A spokeswoman for the Orange County district attorney’s office said prosecutors have not decided whether they’ll seek to retry Regragui on those counts, which include two rape charges.

Regragui was facing 19 felonies including rape, forcible sodomy, forced oral copulation and sexual penetration by a foreign object for allegedly drugging or overpowering women between March 2005 and November 2011.

The jury spent a month listening to testimony and deliberating.

Regragui remains behind bars on $1 million bail and is due back in court Tuesday.

In court documents, prosecutors alleged that Regragui preyed on women, often by offering them drugs and alcohol, and could also be violent.

During a 2005 incident, prosecutors say, he grabbed a woman by the throat, forced her onto a bed and removed her bathing suit.

Jurors, however, cleared Regragui in that incident.

Regragui’s defense argued in court documents that all contact was consensual.

“Rather, the alleged victims were sophisticated and experienced party-goers and drug-users in the Newport Beach bar scene who voluntarily ingested drugs and knew full well they were engaging in and knowingly consenting to sexual relations with the defendant,” his attorney wrote.