Orange County man allegedly put semen in female co-worker's water bottle [Updated]

An investment company executive was arrested Tuesday after DNA recovered from a female co-worker's water bottle revealed he allegedly put semen into a bottle that she later drank from, prosecutors say.

Michael Kevin Lallana, 31, of Fullerton, a field director for Northwestern Mutual Investment Services, was charged with two misdemeanor counts of releasing an offensive material in a public place and assault on two separate occasions.

[Updated at 11:03 p.m.: A Northwestern Mutual spokeswoman said late Tuesday that Lallana was an independent contractor who recruited clients. She said his supervisor dismissed him upon learning of the allegations.]

Orange County prosecutors claimed Lallana committed the crimes earlier this year for sexual gratification.

The first incident allegedly occurred Jan. 14 when Lallana and the woman worked in the company's Newport Beach office. On that day, he left a semen-laced bottle of water on the victim's desk, and when she returned later, she drank from it. She fell ill and threw the bottle away, prosecutors said.

Three months later, prosecutors claim, Lallana repeated the act at the Northwestern office in Orange, where the two had been transferred. The woman, whose identity was withheld by prosecutors, again felt ill. Suspicious of the water’s contents, she sent it to a lab for analysis. In June, the private lab warned the woman that the bottle contained semen.

She reported the incidents to the Orange Police Department and investigators later obtained Lallana’s DNA, which matched that found in the water bottle.

Lallana, who has worked for Northwest Mutual for seven years and describes himself on company websites as a married father of a young daughter and a graduate of USC’s Marshall Business School, was arrested outside his Fullerton home.

If convicted, he faces up to three years in prison with mandatory sex-offender registration. He is scheduled to be arraigned Sept. 14.

“It shocks the conscience,” said Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Bobby Taghavi.

Taghavi said investigators were able to key in on Lallana because he worked at both locations where the incidents occurred. During the investigation Lallana eventually volunteered to provide a sample of his DNA for testing, he said.

Taghavi said Lallana and the woman were colleagues, but Lallana had not expressed animosity toward the woman or done anything publicly to suggest he was the perpetrator.

“These are not charges you see every day,” Taghavi said.

-- Richard Winton

Comments

[Dan]

Gonna be hard to find a job after that.

[Cost]

All he gets is a misdemeanor? That's pretty gnarly. Was it her own water bottle? If it was a regular, clear bottle, one wonders how she would not notice that. Still flat out gross.

[Jim]

Wow!! That's creative on his part!!

[jopsjennigs]

That guy is definitely a tea bag right-wing radio talk show fan if I ever saw one...

[McCrazy]

You seriously couldn't make that sound more digusting if you tried

[bob Huber]

gonna make it hard to talk around the water cooler in that office

[WRosencratz]

Hopefully, this won't hurt their diversity recruitment efforts.

[gEORGE]

Looks like he is well prepared to run for political office.

[TheBigPicture]

I guess that's one way to achieve oral sex...by proxy...but I think you loose something in the precess...

Did he go to the parking lot at lunch time to prepare his concoction for the water bottles...

All kidding aside, this guy really is a sick individual...

[MrMr]

Not only is his page on NW Mutual's site down, but the wayback machine can't access past records on it. "Data Retrieval Failure."

Michael Lallana’s 'Groups' from his LinkedIn page: USC Trojan Network
Wrong Trojan network, Michael! #CondomFail

[gosh]

sounds impossible. more like crazy jealous woman getting back at the guy for an office affair gone wrong. like a monica lewinsky hanging on to a guys stuff.

[Scott]

There is something wrong with this story. First of all, ingesting semen would not make one sick. Secondly, unless the woman saved the first bottle of water from the first alleged incident back in January, which she didn't, there is no forensic evidence so where is this first incident information and evidence coming from? Maybe some co-workers were aware of what he had done and came forward? I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out the two of them were having sexual relations and she got fed up for whatever reason and set him up. I mean she could have performed oral sex on him and then deposited his semen in the bottle of water. I don't think he would have voluntarily given a DNA sample if he had done what he is accused of doing. I think there are major holes in this story, another rush to judgement story maybe.

[Zra]

Scott,

I think you are on to something, but we simply dont have enough information. I wonder if there is a conspiracy to sue the employer?

[blackone]

I liked the way she took the bottle to the lab. I'm sure it had a noxious odor.

[William F. St Marie]

Yep....he is being set up....ruthless. (Unless some major information is missing)