O.C. criminal defense attorney charged with sexual battery, officials say

Prosecutors are looking for more possible victims of a criminal defense attorney who has been accused of sexual misconduct, Orange County officials said.

The allegations against Adam Rudnick Stull stem from an incident reported in November, according to the district attorney’s office.

Stull, 56, is accused of restraining a woman and touching her inappropriately “with sexual intent” against her will, prosecutors said. He was charged Tuesday with one felony count of sexual battery by restraint and two misdemeanors.

Through his attorney Dana Cole, Stull “completely and absolutely” denied the charges.

“We are shocked by these charges, which in the present climate are easy to make and difficult to shake,” Cole said in an email. “We are confident that a very different set of facts will emerge in court, when the alleged victim is under oath.”

While a spokeswoman with the district attorney’s office would not say whether Stull and the woman knew one another, Cole said the allegations involve one of Stull’s clients.

During the investigation, Cole said, authorities contacted a number of Stull’s former clients and “only received glowing reports from each and every one of them.”

That prosecutors were seeking additional victims seems “very wrong, very unfair and very mean,” Cole said. “In this climate, who knows who might take advantage of that invitation.”

The woman reported the incident to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department Nov. 20, about two weeks after she said the encounter occurred. It’s unclear where or how it allegedly happened.

Stull is due in court for his arraignment next month.

According to the State Bar of California’s online records, Stull — who worked as a prosecutor in Kern County in the 1990s — was suspended from practicing law in 1993 for more than a year but is currently eligible to practice. O.C. Weekly reported in 2004 that the suspension stemmed from a 1992 conviction on charges that included oral copulation with a minor, although Stull eventually got his criminal record expunged.

Orange County authorities asked anyone with information to contact Eric Wiseman, a supervising investigator with the district attorney’s office, at (714) 347-8794.

alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Twitter: @AleneTchek