Naman Shrestha
Former child actors and their ties to different kinds of crimes are the main focus of the episode titled ‘Child Stars Gone Violent’ of Investigation Discovery’s ‘Hollywood Demons.’ One of the primary subjects of the documentary is the star of ‘Family Ties,’ Brian Bonsall, whose fame and influence was taken advantage of by a serial rapist named Nathan Loebe. The criminal allegedly pretended to be Brian and dated several women in the course of a decade or so.
Nathan Loebe Was Alleged to be Involved in 40 Rape Cases
In 2004, Nathan Loebe crossed paths with Brian Bonsall, who plays Andy Keaton in the 1980s NBC sitcom ‘Family Ties,’ in jail. Owing to a certain amount of resemblance in their appearances, the former assumed the identity of the actor in order to lure several women into dating him and ultimately raping them. Brian was unaware of the impersonation until he met a woman who told him that she dated Nathan, who also had tattoos in the same place as him, for a few months, thinking that she was with the real Brian Bonsall. As it turned out, between 2003 and 2017, several other women claimed to have met Nathan through online dating websites or in a bar as he assumed fake identities.
They had drinks with him, after which they “either lost consciousness or became incapacitated.” Once he had them in a vulnerable state, he reportedly took advantage of the situation and sexually assaulted them. Nathan kept getting away with the crimes until 2017 when the Tuscon police finally received a grant worth $1 million to investigate nearly 2,000 sexual assault kits. Since he was already in the system due to his prior convictions, the authorities zeroed in on him and arrested him in Kentucky for a sexual assault count in February 2017. He was then extradited to Tucson a few months later. Soon, thanks to the DNA evidence from various cases, Nathan was connected to nearly 40 cases of sexual assault and rape, following which the prosecutors began building a case against him.
Nathan Loebe is Serving His Sentence in an Arizona Prison Facility
A couple of years after his arrest, in early 2019, Nathan Loebe’s trial commenced. Multiple women took the stand and testified against the defendant. In his defense, he claimed that the sexual encounters he had with the women were consensual. Once the prosecution and defense were done presenting their respective arguments in front of the jury, a verdict was reached. On February 21, 2019, after much deliberation, the jury returned with a guilty verdict and convicted Nathan Loebe of raping seven women between 2003 and 2015. He was found guilty of 12 counts of sexual assault, five counts of kidnapping, three counts of stalking, and one count of attempted sexual assault. A few months later, on May 20, 2019, the defense lawyers filed a last-minute motion in an attempt to delay the sentencing, but the judge denied it.
Several women opened up about their experiences with the serial rapist. One of his victims addressed him, saying, “You have a daughter. I thank God you won’t be close to her, get to know her. She won’t know who you are. She’s safe from you like the rest of us.” In the end, Nathan was sentenced to 274 years in prison for his sexual crimes but was credited for the 622 days he had served in the Pima County jail under custody. After a couple of years, the rapist appealed his conviction in 2021. Claiming that he should have been tried separately for each victim, he argued that having a single trial for all the charges resulted in him not having a fair trial.
Upon reviewing his appeal, the appellate panel stated, “We view the facts in the light most favorable to upholding the jury’s verdicts. Loebe claims that, because there was not clear and convincing evidence that he had committed the sexual assaults and there was not a reasonable basis to infer he had an aberrant sexual propensity, non-severance was prejudicial. However, there were significant similarities among all incidents…despite the time between incidents.” When he failed to get his conviction overturned, Nathan appealed for post-conviction relief in June 2024. He argued that the appellate panel did not challenge “improper comments by the prosecutor,” “the improper introduction of testimony regarding the religious views of victims, two witnesses, and the defendant,” and other arguments. Although the court granted the defense to review their stance, his relief was denied. Currently, he is incarcerated at the ASPC–Eyman in Florence, Arizona.
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