Roughly a dozen women testify in sex abuse trial of prominent California water polo coach

Over the course of the past month, roughly a dozen young women have taken the stand in an Orange County courtroom to accuse Bahram Hojreh, a prominent local water polo coach, of repeatedly sexually abusing them during practices while they were in their teens.

Hojreh, a well-known coach with more than two decades experience in the sport, is on trial for the alleged sexual abuse of more than a dozen female players, mostly during practices at the Olympic-size swimming pool at the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos.

Hojreh, 46, of Irvine, is facing two dozen felony charges — including sexual battery, sexual penetration and lewd acts on a minor — tied to 10 alleged victims, with three other former players also accusing him of molesting them. At least one of the former players has alleged that she was also sexually abused by Hojreh in a pool at Kennedy High School, where he was also coaching shortly before his arrest.

Hojreh has denied the accusations. His attorney questioned how so many alleged acts of sexual abuse could occur during public practices attended by other players, coaches, lifeguards and parents. The defense attorney has also questioned whether the young women made the accusations in order to pursue a lawsuit and payout.

During their testimony over the past month in a Santa Ana courtroom, the young women — as well as their parents — have been identified only by their first name and last initial, or by the pseudonym “Jane Doe.” The Southern California News Group is not using their names, in order to avoid identifying alleged sexual assault victims.

During often-emotional testimony, the former club players alleged generally similar behavior by the man they still referred to as “Coach Bahram” — underwater touching of their breasts and twisting of nipples, the touching of their genitals above and then below their swimsuits and then digital penetration, at times with attempts to coerce them into touching his genitals. The club players ranged in age from 14 to 17 years old at the time.

The alleged abuse occurred during one-on-one sessions, they testified, while other players practiced team drills less than 15 feet away. Some parents who would bring the then-teens to and from the pool and often stayed during the evening and nighttime practices testified that they had no idea what was going on since they couldn’t see under the water from their vantage point in nearby stands.

Many of the former players testified that Hojreh made them believe he was “toughening them up” for the type of contact he allegedly claimed they could expect from opposing players at the college level.

“He said that other people were going to be doing it, and it was normal in water polo,” one of the women testified.

“In that moment did you believe your coach?” the prosecutor asked.

“Yes,” the woman answered.

During her opening statement in early October, Deputy District Attorney Raquel Cooper alleged that Hojreh took advantage of the college and Olympic dreams of the teenage girls. During their testimony, many of Hojreh’s former players said they trusted him because of his history and prominence in the sport, and believed he was the key to their college ambitions.

“I dreaded it every practice,” one of the women said of the alleged one-on-one sessions with Hojreh.

“But you still continued to go – why?” the prosecutor asked.

“I wanted to play in college,” she answered. “He told us any college coach we could think of would be just one phone call away. All we had to do was keep practicing and he would get us to where we wanted to be.”

Some of the players testified that they felt unsettled at seemingly personal, at-times late-night, texts that Hojreh sent them. The prosecutor showed jurors one text in which Hojreh referred to one of the players having “big hazel eyes and a smile” when communicating with the teen’s teammate, adding that  “I had to make her feel safe.”

In late 2017, the girls began to confide in one another, prosecutors said, and some reached out to adults by early 2018, first through a friend whose father worked in law enforcement and then through parents. The adults who testified said they were taken by surprise when their daughters took them aside to tell them what happened.

“She had this look on her face, like it was a combination of shame and sadness and (being) scared,” a father of one of the players testified.

“What did you do?” the prosecutor asked.

“We said ‘I’m sorry, we believe you, and it is not your fault,’” the father replied, after taking a long pause and dabbing at his eyes with a tissue.

Investigators began reaching out to the other players. But some testified that they didn’t immediately tell police what happened.

“I just wasn’t ready,” one woman testified through tears. “Everything kind of blew up in my face. I didn’t know how to say things and how to come to terms with it.”

Hojreh is expected to take the stand to address the allegations later in the trial. In the meantime, his attorney, John Barnett, has repeatedly questioned the young women on their motivation for making the allegations, and challenged their testimony that they didn’t immediately know that the conduct they accused the coach of taking part in would be considered abuse.

Barnett repeatedly asked them if they knew about Kennedy coach Josh Owens, who was arrested for sexually abusing athletes. The defense attorney noted during his cross-examinations that Owens’ sex abuse victims were paid a $7.9 million settlement by the Anaheim Unified School District, and asked if the prospect of a civil lawsuit with a large payout motivated them to point the finger at Hojreh.

Barnett also asked them about games the club team played in the Inland Empire during the summer of 2017, in which two of their players were accused of — and later suspended for — sexual misconduct that was similar to the alleged actions by Hojreh. The defense attorney asked them why those suspensions, which occurred months before the girls made their accusations against Hojreh, didn’t make clear that such touching was not allowed in the sport.

As the defense began calling witnesses Monday, several former players, parents and coaches who spent years around Hojreh testified that they never saw him touch anyone inappropriately.

“I do not believe that is something that he would do,” one of them testified.

Testimony in the trial is expected to concluded by early next week.

USA Water Polo, the sport’s national governing body, has already agreed to a $13.85 million settlement with those who alleged the sexual abuse by Hohreh. Another lawsuit alleges Hojreh sexually abused a student while teaching at Kennedy High School in Anaheim and University High School in Irvine.

Hojreh following the criminal charges and lawsuits was banned for life from participating in USA Water Polo events. Testimony in his criminal trial is expected to wind down by the end of this week.