SANTA ANA (CBSLA.com) — A Fullerton man who twice put semen into an unsuspecting female co-workers’ water bottle had an appeal rejected, according to court records obtained today.

A panel of Orange County Superior Court judges affirmed Michael Kevin Lallana’s misdemeanor battery conviction in October.

The Fourth District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana rejected his request for appeal Thursday.

The appeal rejection would appear to end Lallana’s legal strategy to avoid jail time. He was handed a six-month sentence in April 2011 and has not yet served.

Messages left with Lallana’s attorney, Tom Dunn Jr., were not immediately returned.

In his appeal argument, Dunn said Lallana would have had to take some direct action that indicated force against the victim to justify the battery convictions.

The lower court judges disagreed, saying in the ruling, “The essence of the crime is an un-consented, offensive, physical contact. In addition, that offensive contact between the aggressor and the victim need not be direct, but rather ‘Can be done indirectly by causing an object to touch the other person.”‘

Deputy District Attorney Anna Chinowth handled prosecution of the appeal. She noted the judges used a similar case in Missouri where the victim unknowingly drank semen placed in her cup.

In the ruling, the judges said “placing semen in another person’s water bottle from which that person later drank constitutes physical contact and amounts to the ‘use of force or violence’ as contemplated by (the law).”

While being questioned, Lallana told detectives that he put his semen in the water bottle because “her lips had touched it.” Dunn argued in his appeal that Lallana suffered from a narcissistic personality disorder, but did not put the semen in her bottle either time for sexual gratification.

Lallana was sentenced in April 2011 to 180 days in jail and three years probation. He was also ordered in August 2011 to pay $27,410.87 in restitution to his victim to cover her loss of income and other expenses such as therapy.

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 seemed like semen when she drank from the bottle. She again tasted semen in her water on April 6, 2010. She took the bottle to a laboratory to have it tested. When the test showed there was semen in the water, Orange detectives questioned the company’s employees.

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