Man Who Put Semen in Co-worker's Water Bottle Begins Sentence

A man who twice put his semen into an unsuspecting female co-worker's water bottle surrendered today to begin serving his six-month sentence.

Michael Kevin Lallana, 34, will do his time in the Orange County Jail.

Lallana was sentenced in April 2011 to 180 days behind bars and three years probation for twice secretly ejaculating into the co-worker's water bottle, from which she later drank.

He was also ordered in August 2011 to pay $27,410.87 in restitution to the victim to cover her loss of income and other expenses, such as therapy, and was ordered to register as a sex offender for life.

Lallana's attorney, Tom Dunn Jr., unsuccessfully sought to get Orange County Superior Court Judge Walter Schwarm to recommend home confinement instead of jail time.

"He's really turned his life around," Dunn said after today's hearing.

Lallana has been paying $1,000 a month in restitution, instead of the court-ordered $300 monthly fee, Dunn said.

"Unfortunately, he has to go to jail so the victim won't be getting that money" while he's behind bars, according to Dunn, who said that was one of the reasons he argued for home confinement.

Since his conviction, Lallana started a business that works with pharmacies to provide discount cards for customers, Dunn said.

Lallana has also been in therapy and has completed 80 of 104 court- imposed therapy sessions, his attorney said.

"He's such a rare client," Dunn said. "Most are whining by now, but his attitude is exactly the opposite ... He did a bad thing, but he's a good kid."

Dunn said he would go to the appellate court in an attempt to overturn the requirement for Lallana to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

A panel of Orange County Superior Court judges affirmed Lallana's misdemeanor battery conviction in October, and a three-justice panel of the Fourth District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana rejected his appeal in December.

Lallana and the victim started working together at Northwestern Mutual Financial Network in Newport Beach. Both were transferred to the company's office in Orange in 2010.

The victim testified that while she was working in Newport Beach, she left her water bottle at work on a Friday in January 2010 and when she returned on Monday, she noticed a foul taste that she suspected was semen when she drank from the bottle.

After moving to the new office in Orange, she again tasted semen in her water on April 6, 2010. She took the bottle to a laboratory to have it tested, because Orange police told her they could not open an investigation on speculation of a crime, and her superiors at work did not know what to do about it, she said.

When the test showed there was semen in the water, Orange detectives started questioning the company's employees.

-City News Service