A pair of Orange County school districts have reached a combined $4.8 million settlement with six young women who alleged abuse by Bahram Hojreh, a prominent local water polo coach who was sentenced to prison last year for sexually assaulting numerous female players.
The Irvine Unified High School District has agreed to pay two women $2.5 million and the Anaheim Union High School District has agreed to pay four women $2.3 million, according to attorneys for Manley, Stewart and Finaldi, a high-profile, Irvine-based law firm that specializes in sexual abuse cases. The firm announced the settlement Wednesday.
A dozen of Hojreh’s former players represented by the same law firm previously reached a $13.85 million settlement with USA Water Polo and International Water Polo related to their abuse at the hands of the now disgraced coach. Along with Hojreh’s criminal conviction — which resulted in an 18-year, four-month prison sentence — the newly announced settlement with the two school districts brings the various legal actions related to the sexual assault allegations to an end.
“These girls finally got their justice, and I couldn’t be prouder of them or more impressed by them,” said Morgan Stewart, the victims’ attorney who represented Hojreh’s former players.
Officials with the Irvine Unified School District and the Anaheim Union High School District did not respond to a request for comment regarding the settlements.
Former players and their parents have described Hojreh as an arrogant and manipulative man whose larger-than-life persona and revered status within the sport of water polo masked years of sexual abuse. Morgan Stewart said Hojreh is a “monster who was allowed free reign over vulnerable girls for many years.”
IUSD officials hired Hojreh three times as a walk-on coach, Stewart said, each time letting him go following reports of abusive behavior and alleged harassment toward female players. He was then hired as a walk-on coach by officials at AUHSD, where he briefly worked until his arrest.
Stewart argued that Hojreh was likely “emboldened” by the fact that he was repeatedly re-hired in Irvine.
“He shouldn’t have been hired multiple times, he should have been better supervised,” the attorney said. “They knew they had complaints from parents and students.”
“It wasn’t an isolated incident, it was a history of hitting players, throwing stuff, acting inappropriately,” he added.
Stewart said while some in Anaheim were aware of Hojreh’s “history of controlling behavior,” they apparently didn’t do a background check to see why he had been let go from Irvine.
An Irvine resident and long-time club and high school coach, Hojreh trained, by his own estimate, more than 100 All-Americans and developed more than 40 members who made the national team while leading at least 10 teams to national championships. Along with his coaching role at Kennedy High School, Hojreh was running the International Water Polo Club in Los Alamitos at the time of his arrest.
A group of female players testified that they decided to reach out to their parents and law enforcement about the sexual abuse out of fear that their younger siblings and future players would also be targeted by Hojreh. The dozen women who testified at his criminal trial described Hojreh abusing them with underwater touching of their breasts and twisting of their nipples, touching their genitals above and below their swimsuits and digital penetration.
Hojreh has continually denied the abuse, instead alleging that his former players were part of a “conspiracy” against him. During the criminal trial, Hojreh’s attorney alleged the accusers were motivated by monetary payouts from civil lawsuits.
Stewart argued that the Hojreh cases illustrate a larger issue with oversight of walk-on coaches. The attorney noted that such coaches don’t go through the same training teachers go through, despite being expected to spend significant time alone with minors.
“School districts need to recognize that after-school athletics are just as important as the school day,” the attorney said. “The power dynamic is huge in coaching.”