People v. Hojreh

• Court: California Court of Appeals
• Writing for the Court: MOORE, ACTING P. J.
• Docket Number: G062267
• Decision Date: 31 October 2025
• Citation: People v. Hojreh, G062267 (Cal. App. Oct 31, 2025)
• Parties: THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. BAHRAM HOJREH, Defendant and Appellant.

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THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. BAHRAM HOJREH, Defendant and Appellant.

G062267

California Court of Appeals, Fourth District, Third Division

October 31, 2025

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED

Appeal from a judgment of the Superior Court of Orange County Super Ct. No. 18WF0754, Kimberly Menninger, Judge.

Warren S. Burstein and Devin Jai Burstein for Defendant and Appellant.

Rob Bonta, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Charles C. Ragland, Assistant Attorney General, Robin Urbanski and Juliet W. Park, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

OPINION

MOORE ACTING P. J.

"Any person who touches an intimate part of another person for the purpose of sexual arousal, sexual gratification, or sexual abuse, and the victim is at the time unconscious of the nature of the act because the perpetrator fraudulently represented that the touching served a professional purpose is guilty of sexual battery." (Pen. Code, § 243.4 subd. (c).)^[1]

Defendant Bahram Hojreh was a water polo coach who touched the intimate parts of nine female students. Hojreh "fraudulently represented that the touching served a professional purpose." (§ 243.4 (c).) Hojreh also committed a simple assault against a tenth female student. We will refer to each of the victims as Jane Doe (JD-1, JD-2, JD-3, etc.).

At the end of a lengthy trial, a jury found Hojreh guilty of 23 counts charging five separate crimes: committing a lewd act upon a child under the age of 14 (one count), committing a lewd act upon a child between the ages of 14 and 15 (six counts), sexual penetration of a minor (six counts), sexual battery by fraud (nine counts), and simple assault (one count). The trial court imposed a sentence of 18 years and four months.

Hojreh claims: (A) there is insufficient evidence to support one of the sexual penetration counts and all nine of the sexual battery by fraud counts; (B) the trial court committed errors regarding the admission and exclusion of evidence; (C) there was cumulative prejudice; and (D) the court improperly imposed more than one punishment for the same act.

We find there is insufficient evidence to support one conviction for sexual penetration (count 17). We find no other errors. Thus, we reverse in part, affirm in part, and remand for resentencing.

I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

From 2014 until the summer of 2017, Hojreh coached the girls water polo team at University High School in Irvine. Starting in the fall of 2017, Hojreh then coached the girls water polo team at Kennedy High School in La Palma until December of 2017. During this time frame (from 2014 to 2017) Hojreh was also the head coach of the International Water Polo Club (IWPC). The IWPC held its practices at a large Olympic sized swimming pool at the Joint Forces Training Base at Los Alamitos.

The IWPC practices were generally held on weekdays from 6:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. During the practices, a portion of the pool was open to the public for lap swimming, and a portion was designated for the IWPC, which consisted of boys and girls water polo players of different ages from different schools. Generally, the IWPC practices would begin with a workout on the deck, then drills in the water, and then scrimmage matches at the end of the evening.

During the drills portion of the IWPC practices, Hojreh conducted one-on-one training sessions with female students. Hojreh conducted individualized training in one area of the pool, while the rest of the players continued doing drills in another area. During these one-on-one training sessions, Hojreh committed various crimes against each of the 10 Jane Doe victims in this case.^[2]

Jane Does One Through Ten

Hojreh began doing one-on-one training sessions with JD-1 starting when she was 13 years old. Hojreh taught JD-1 how to do "wedgies" by pulling on her swimsuit. Hojreh told JD-1 that she could use these techniques to her advantage. On multiple occasions, Hojreh's hand entered JD-1's suit and touched her vagina. More than once, Hojreh's finger penetrated the opening of her vagina. Hojreh told JD-1 not to be distracted by what he was doing, and she could expect this to happen at higher levels of water polo. JD-1 believed Hojreh when he told her the one-on-one sessions would help prepare her to play water polo at the college level.

Hojreh conducted one-on-one training sessions with JD-2 starting in her junior year in high school. Hojreh told JD-2 that the sessions were for her to "gain an edge" in water polo. Hojreh pulled on JD-2's bathing suit and demonstrated how to do "wedgies." When Hojreh grabbed JD-2's bathing suit, he touched the skin of her vagina on more than one occasion. Hojreh pulled on her pubic hair and told her it was too long. Hojreh also instructed JD-2 to pull on his Speedo bathing suit, and to pull on his pubic hair. JD-2 was skeptical that this reciprocal touching was part of water polo, but Hojreh told her "that this happens at the collegiate level, and this happens at the Olympic level and that . . . you need to be ready for that."

Hojreh conducted one-on-one training sessions with JD-3 starting in her junior year in high school. One day Hojreh asked JD-3 if she shaved. After she responded in the affirmative, Hojreh reached under JD-3's suit and pulled on her pubic hair. Hojreh said, "'No you don't, but I won't tell anyone.'" JD-3 was shocked, but she did not tell anyone because she was scared and embarrassed. Hojreh demonstrated "wedgies" on her by pulling underneath her bathing suit. Hojreh's hands made contact with her vagina three or four times. Hojreh told JD-3 that as a result of his lessons she "would be a better player." At the time, JD-3 believed what Hojreh was telling her.

Hojreh conducted one-on-one training sessions with JD-4 starting when she was a sophomore in high school. At her first practice, Hojreh "grabbed my suit in my vagina area and gave me a wedgie which is basically tugging my suit back and forth until the point of pain." Hojreh penetrated JD-4's vagina with his fingers more than 20 times. At one point, Hojreh "reached down in my suit near the vaginal area and pulled out a couple of my pubic hairs and . . . asked me why I didn't shave." JD-4 said that Hojreh would also "tickle my butthole area" with his finger. Hojreh told JD-4 that the purpose of his training was that "this was typical behavior in higher level water polo. This is something that I needed to master if I wanted to play in college or at a higher level." At the time, JD-4 believed him.

Hojreh conducted one-on-one training sessions with JD-5 starting when she was a sophomore in high school. Hojreh demonstrated "wedgies" by grabbing within JD-5's bathing suit, which made her feel uncomfortable. Hojreh's knuckle penetrated her "vaginal canal." Hojreh told JD-5 that he needed to do these trainings more often so that she would be "desensitized." Hojreh touched her buttock. Hojreh twisted JD-5's nipples. Hojreh would "reach around" and say, "'I can't find it, I can't find it' until eventually he would locate where my nipple was and would twist my nipple inside my suit." Hojreh told JD-5 that his training would make her a better water polo player. JD-5 "didn't really understand how," but Hojreh told her, "I know all of the ways, and this is how you'll get there so I trusted him."

Hojreh conducted one-on-one training sessions with JD-6 starting the summer before her sophomore year in high school. Hojreh told JD-6 that the purpose of the training was "to be tougher. He needed to prepare us for playing in college. This is what the college girls were going to do to us." Hojreh demonstrated how to do "wedgies" by grabbing her suit from behind. JD-6 said that Hojreh would sometimes "wrap his entire hand around the fabric covering my vagina, have his whole hand, and he would hold it like that and pull it up in the front." Hojreh touched on the outside of her vagina "and also on the inside." JD-6 did not tell Hojreh that this made her uncomfortable because, "I didn't want to seem weak. I didn't want to seem like I couldn't take what he was giving to me because if I couldn't then I wasn't ready for college."

Hojreh conducted one-on-one training sessions with JD-7 starting in her junior year in high school. There were occasions when Hojreh touched beneath JD-7's swimsuit and touched her vagina. Despite feeling uncomfortable, JD-7 returned for further practice sessions. JD-7 did this because her teammates "kept going. No one said anything." As far as touching her vagina with his fingers, Hojreh told JD-7 "that other people were going to do it and . . . that it was normal, and that it was a normal thing in water polo for us to be doing." Hojreh would refer to himself as "Mohammed Ali's son. He would call himself God. He would say he was the best water polo player in the nation." JD-7 believed that Hojreh could help her achieve her goals in water polo.

Hojreh conducted one-on-one training sessions with JD-8 starting in the summer before her sophomore year in high school. JD-8 began to feel uncomfortable during these one-on-one training sessions; however, at the time, JD-8 "didn't see anything wrong because I didn't really know what water polo was." More than once, Hojreh would grab the bottom portion of her swimsuit that covered her vagina. Hojreh would make a fist while doing this and his knuckles would touch her vagina. Hojreh repeatedly touched both the inside and the outside of JD-8's vagina. While doing this, Hojreh told JD-8 that "this is how you like guard people. You're supposed to grab them so, so it's easier for you to guard them." JD-8 did not really question Hojreh because "he would just say like this is how you guard, this is how you're supposed to...