One of two men accused in a cyber-stalking case involving celebrity esthetician Dawn DaLuise has been arrested a second time, and detectives are negotiating the surrender of a second suspect with his lawyer.
Deputy Ryan Rouzan of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department said Edward Feinstein, 31, turned himself into the Los Angeles Police Department’s Van Nuys Station on Tuesday and was later released on bond. He was arrested on three counts each of stalking and one count of solicitation to commit a sexual assault. His trial is set for Oct. 6 at Clara Foltz Criminal Courthouse in Los Angeles.
Feinstein also was arrested in March of last year and released then on $150,000 bail. Sheriff’s Detective Steve McCauley said further investigation has revealed additional information that led to the added charges.
Feinstein, 30, is a former resident of West Hollywood and was a friend of Dawn DaLuise, owner of Skin Refinery, a salon at 8543 Santa Monica Blvd. near West Knoll in West Hollywood. DaLuise bragged that her salon catered to clients such as Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr., Alicia Silverstone, Christina Ricci, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Alyson Hannigan and Sally Struthers.
DaLuise was charged in March 2013 for soliciting Chris Geile, a former NFL player, to kill Gabriel Suarez, the owner of Smooth Cheeks and one of her competitors, who had opened a salon nearby. DaLuise’s anger toward Suarez was in part because she believed he was the source of mass emails and an ad on Craigslist in which someone purporting to be DaLuise solicited men to act out a “rape fantasy” on her and included her home address, phone number and photo.
“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 at the time. Her communications included homophobic and racist slurs, according to Detective McCauley. In an earlier hearing he testified that DaLuise asked a man to connect her with a white supremacist group to kill Suarez, who she called a “double-minority Mexican gay.”
Sheriff’s investigators eventually concluded that it was Feinstein who had created and distributed sexually explicit paper flyers that included a photo of DaLuise’s face. He also is alleged to have sent the mass emails and posted the Craigslist ad.
Feinstein, in an interview with ABC News 20/20 last year, said that DaLuise had enlisted him to post the ads on Craigslist in the hope that people would believe Suarez was posting them. “She wanted me to pretend to be Gabriel, send her fake texts, post Craigslist ads. She wanted it to seem like she was being stalked so she could say it was Gabriel,” Feinstein said.
Feinstein said he got free facials in exchange for posting the ads. He has a previous arrest record on charges including felony credit card fraud, grand theft and identity theft.
DaLuise was found not guilty of all charges in January of this year. During her trial Chris Giele testified that she had not asked him to murder Suarez but simply vented her anger about Suarez to him. DaLuise was released in January after 10 months in jail.
Detective McCauley would not identify the other suspect being sought. However the investigation in Feinstein led to the arrest last year of 23-year-old Nicholas F. Prugo — who authorities said was one of the masterminds of the so-called “Bling Ring” that targeted the homes of celebrities such as Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan for burglaries. Prugo, described as a friend or roommate of Feinstein, was questioned during the Feinstein investigation and then arrested on suspicion of violating his parole for allegedly carrying a gun.
Anyone with information about this case is encouraged to contact Detective McCauley the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department Fraud and Cyber Crimes Bureau at (661) 287-4096.
