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# Main Street surf shop owner faces rape lawsuit
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/main-street-surf-shop-owner-faces-rape-lawsuit/
- Published: 2003-05-09T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T02:07:42.000Z
- Author: John Wood
- Tags: Business, Main St, #archive-import

*But criminal charges were dropped for lack of evidence*

The owner of a Santa Monica surf shop is being sued for allegedly raping a former customer and friend.

Stacy Peters, a 29-year-old freelance graphic designer, is suing Randy Wright, 40, owner of Horizons West on Main Street, for an undisclosed amount of money.

Jurors heard opening arguments and the beginning of the civil case against Wright on Thursday. The trial, which is being heard by Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Lorna Parnell, is expected to last two days.

The district attorney never pressed criminal charges against Wright because it said there was not sufficient evidence.

Peters, who said she invited Wright into her bed on Jan. 10, 2001 after spending the evening drinking wine and doing household repairs with him, testified that she woke up to find Wright raping her.

Wright told a different story. He said the two were engaged in foreplay for more than 30 minutes when he tried to have sex with her and was pushed away.

Both sides said they went back to sleep immediately after the incident.

Before that night, there was no sexual relationship between the two, though Wright had spent the night in Peter’s living room a handful of times.

Peters notified Los Angeles Police Department officers 17 days after the alleged rape.

The criminal case against Wright was dropped in May of 2001 because of the lack of evidence, said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.

Shepard Kopp, Wright’s defense attorney, characterized the civil lawsuit as a money-making effort by Peters, who also named Horizons West as a defendant in the lawsuit.

“She doesn’t go to the cop for two and a half weeks,” he said. “She gets right back in bed with a guy that supposedly raped her. She files a civil case a year after the criminal charges were dropped.

“To me the whole thing is buyer’s remorse. The girl had too much to drink, made a mistake and regrets it.”

> “To me the whole thing is buyer’s remorse. The girl had too much to drink, made a mistake and regrets it.” — — SHEPARD KOPP Defense attorney

Peters and Wright met in the summer of 2000\. Peters was a novice surfer and stumbled into Wright’s surf shop looking for advice and surfing equipment.

The two quickly developed a casual friendship. They often went surfing together and out for dinner and drinks.

Peters said she waited to make an official complaint because a week after the incident she left for a Hawaiian vacation that the two were meant to share. Wright didn’t go on the trip because their relationship deteriorated after the incident.

Once she got on the plane, Peters said she realized the severity of the situation.

“Everything just got worse and worse and worse,” said Peters, who broke into tears on the stand. “I (originally) thought it was something I could just deal with on my own.”

After returning to L.A., Peters reported the alleged rape to police. She said she attended more than 20 weekly rape counseling sessions and was prescribed Prozac and sleeping pills because of the trauma she suffered by the experience.

“My whole world turned upside down,” she said. “I couldn’t function... It was like a trigger. My body just freaked out.”

Peters moved several times after the alleged incident, saying she wanted to get as far away from the area as possible.

She spent four months guiding scuba tours on the island of St. Thomas in the Caribbean. She then moved back to Venice for six months, then to Redondo Beach for two months, then to Central America for another two months and has been living in Marina del Rey for the last three months.

Peters would not say how much money she is seeking in damages and lost wages but said she made upwards of $42 an hour for her work as a graphic designer at Daily Planet, a Santa Monica ad agency.

Carol Gillam, her attorney, said the alleged rape has forced her to miss out on tens of thousands of dollars in wages.

Wright, who grew up in Venice, won surfing’s West Coast Championship in 1984\. He bought Horizons West in 1987 from Nathan Pratt, who first opened the store in 1977.

Pratt was part of the “Dogtown Z-Boys,” a group of surfers in Venice and Santa Monica widely credited with creating modern skateboarding.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 9, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/050903.pdf?ref=smdp.com)