A man who after learning the techniques of so-called “pickup artists” took part in the rape of an intoxicated woman in downtown San Diego was sentenced Friday to eight years in prison, the maximum allowed under the law.

Jason Berlin, 28, pleaded guilty to the rape charge in November 2015. He was sentenced in San Diego Superior Court.

He and two other men, all of whom were linked to a company called Efficient Pickup, were charged after a 31-year-old woman reported finding her attackers on the company website along with posts in which they blogged about the night in October 2013 when they sexually assaulted her.


Co-defendants Jonas Dick and Alexander Markham Smith also were convicted of rape charges. Dick, 28, pleaded guilty to rape of an unconscious person in January 2016. Smith, 27, was convicted last year in trial of rape of an intoxicated person and rape of an unconscious person.

Both men were sentenced to eight-year prison terms.

Judge Jeffrey Fraser, the same judge who sentenced them, chose the maximum prison term for Berlin even though the prosecution had asked for a lesser term of six years.

The judge noted that Berlin had no previous criminal history and had testified for the prosecution in Smith’s trial. (Berlin agreed to testify but was offered no deal for a lighter sentence.)


After reading aloud from a transcript of Berlin’s testimony, the judge said he did not believe the defendant told the truth when he made comments indicating the victim had consented to have sex.

“The defendant degraded that woman. He made her into a simple sex object. … This was the ultimate violation of this woman’s body, mind and spirit,” Fraser said.

Defense attorney Vikas Bajaj asked the judge to consider placing Berlin on probation. He argued that his client, who was recently diagnosed as having an Autism spectrum disorder, testified truthfully in Smith’s case, and that his condition makes it difficult for him to read social cues or express emotions in ways others might find appropriate.

“Mr. Berlin is absolutely embarrassed that he even became involved in this,” said Bajaj, who called the co-defendants in the case “predators.”


Smith and Dick were instructors at Efficient Pickup, which aimed to teach men how to seduce and have sex with as many women as possible. Berlin had been their student.

“He was taught the wrong thing,” Bajaj said. “It’s as simple as that.”

Deputy District Attorney Lisa Fox said she believed Berlin was truthful when he testified, but that he didn’t seem to understand the gravity of what he did to the victim.

“He not only raped her while she was intoxicated and unconscious, he bragged about it,” Fox said.


Berlin said in court that he did not intend to do any harm the night of the incident, and that he was “ashamed and embarrassed” that his actions contributed to the victim’s pain.

Rape victim did her own detective work to find ‘pickup artists’ who assaulted her »

According to court documents, the victim and a female friend had been at a bar in the Gaslamp Quarter in October 2013 and left about 2 a.m. As they waited for a taxi, the women were approached by Smith and Dick, who invited them to an apartment on J Street.

Berlin, who paid for the apartment, was there when they arrived.


The victim was raped while she was passed out inside one of the apartment bedrooms and separated from her friend. She reported the rape to police immediately but also did some investigation on her own, conducting internet searches for the men who had been in the apartment.

At first, she only had one identifying piece of information. Her friend had remembered a name: Jonas Dick.

As he had at previous hearings, the judge again commended the victim for her work on the case, adding that without it the defendants might never have been caught. Although police went to the apartment and knocked on the door immediately after the rape was reported, it took months for them to obtain a search warrant and make arrests.

Fraser said he respects the San Diego Police Department, but in this particular case, “they dropped the ball.”


“The only reason they made the arrest was you,” Fraser told the victim.

The woman spoke frankly at the Friday hearing, reading directly from the online posts she had uncovered. She said some of the words in those posts continue to make her skin crawl.

“It’s indescribable to explain what it’s like to read about our own rape in journal format,” the woman said in court.

Berlin’s mother sobbed in the courtroom, as the woman described her “fuzzy” memories from the night of the incident, including the physical pain she felt from being sexually assaulted and then being forced out of the apartment “like throwing laundry out the door.”


She said she didn’t know the defendants’ names that night but has entered them into internet search engines countless times since then.

“When I stumbled upon this pickup artist world, it consumed me,” she said. “I tried to read to learn as a way to protect myself so I can identify who has been brainwashed with this lifestyle.”

On Friday, the woman said she came to court — as she had many times while the case was pending — to bring attention to the pickup artist community and how the men prey on women, including herself.

“That night was not an ‘oops’ or a coincidence of events,” she said. “It was strategically planned by these men who not only manipulated and raped women regularly, but blogged and profited from it (through) their fans, followers and students.”


dana.littlefield@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @danalittlefield

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12:45 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details from the sentencing hearing.

This article was originally published at 11:45 a.m.