O.C. school districts to pay total of $4.8 million to former students abused by water polo coach
Two Orange County school districts have reached settlements totaling $4.8 million with six women who were sexually abused as teenagers by their water polo coach.
Bahram Hojreh, 47, is serving a sentence of more than 18 years in prison for 22 felony counts of sexual assault of minors.
He was convicted in November 2022 of abusing multiple girls he coached over a five-year period at John F. Kennedy High School, part of the Anaheim Union High School District, and University High School, in the Irvine Unified School District.
A hung jury led to a mistrial being declared for Salvador Sanchez, a former LAPD officer, in the deadly shooting of Kenneth French, whose parents were also wounded at a Corona Costco store.
The assaults took place between 2012 and 2017 and involved Hojreh violating the victims while they were in the water, hiding the acts from view.
The settlements in the civil lawsuits, filed on behalf of two of the victims at Irvine Unified and four of the victims at Anaheim Union, were reached this week. The Irvine Unified settlement totaled $2.3 million and the Anaheim Union settlement $2.5 million.
Morgan Stewart, an attorney who represented the Jane Does in the lawsuits, said he hoped the settlements would help bring the victims closure.
“The highlight of the story is these girls had the wherewithal to speak out,” Stewart said. “They were very selfless with coming forward.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for Irvine Unified School District said its “priority is the safety and well-being of our students, and we take allegations and matters such as this seriously.”
A spokesperson for Anaheim Union did not return a request for comment.
A separate settlement with USA Water Polo and International Water Polo, where Hojreh had also worked as a coach during the same time period, was settled in 2021 for $13.8 million.
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