An investigation and arrest by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Fraud and Cyber Crimes Bureau provides a possible, although not justifiable, explanation for celebrity beauty maven Dawn DaLuise’s alleged effort to have a competitor killed.
Sheriff’s deputies yesterday arrested Edward Feinstein, who until last week had lived in West Hollywood and had said he was a witness to DaLuise’s alleged plot to murder Gabriel Suarez, owner of Smooth Cheeks. DaLuise is owner of Skin Refinery at 8543 Santa Monica Blvd. near West Knoll, which is in the same block as Smooth Cheeks. Her clients have included Christina Ricci, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicky Minaj and Jennifer Anniston and she has been featured in magazines such as Vogue and InStyle.
According to the Sheriff’s Department, Feinstein, 28, who knew DaLuise, began last July to create and distribute sexually explicit paper flyers that included a photo of DaLuise’s face. He also is alleged to have sent mass emails and posted an ad on Craigslist pretending to be DaLuise that solicited men to act out a “rape fantasy” on her and included her home address, phone number and photo.
When DaLuise learned of the ad, the Sheriff’s Department said, she believed the person responsible was Gabriel Suarez, her competitor, and confided that to Feinstein. “She then began communications by text and phone calls with more than one person, in an effort to hire someone to kill the person she believed was trying to solicit rape against her and threaten the safety of her daughters,” according to a Sheriff’s Department statement.
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s investigators arrested DaLuise last week before anyone was physically hurt. She is being held in jail with her bail set at $1 million.
While the arrest of Feinstein may indicate a motive for DaLuise’s actions, “she is culpable for soliciting someone to kill the victim,” said Captain Shaun Mathers of the Fraud and Cyber Crimes Bureau. “She believed it would be carried out.”
Feinstein, who was arrested at his new apartment in Studio City, was charged with stalking. He was released from custody on $150,000 bail and is set to appear at Airport Court in Los Angeles on May 14.
The Sheriff’s Department is still investigating other people allegedly contacted by DaLuise to carry out the murder for hire. It also has another man under investigation in the cyber stalking of DaLuise.
