USA Water Polo aware in 2017 of sexual assault allegations against California coach and his club

The first sign of trouble came in the third quarter of a July 2017 girls ages 14 to 16 water polo match between the Capistrano Valley Aquatic Club, also known as Alliance, and International Water Polo based in Los Alamitos.

“Don’t you see she’s fouling me?” an Alliance player shouted at referee Ron Baron during a transition, according to an incident report filed with USA Water Polo officials. “She’s grabbing me.”

Baron excluded the Alliance player, who, after exiting the pool, threw off her cap, and according to the incident report, said, “I’m done. I’m not doing this anymore.”

The scene quickly turned chaotic: two players were ejected, parents for the two clubs began yelling and threatening each other, Alliance parents accusing IWP players of sexually assaulting their daughters underwater.

Baron asked the clubs’ coaches for assistance in restoring order.

“This is ridiculous,” Alliance coach Christopher Smithson yelled at the referee according to the incident report.

“Our girls are being sexually assaulted and he is teaching them how to do it,” Smithson continued, pointing at IWP coach Bahram Hojreh.

Baron’s report is one of four reports obtained by the Orange County Register that were filed with USA Water Polo, the sport’s Irvine-based national governing body, between July 10 and 14, 2017 that outline allegations or allege that players coached by Hojreh repeatedly sexually assaulted young girls from at least five teams during tournaments that summer by grabbing or trying to penetrate their vaginas.

While USA Water Polo officials forwarded reports and complaints to the U.S. Center for SafeSport they did not report the incidents to law enforcement or Child Protective services even though under California law and SafeSport code they are mandated reporters of sexual abuse and the organization’s chief executive only months later would tell a U.S. Senate subcommittee that the NGB’s protocol was to immediately alert law enforcement, according to depositions, emails, letters and sworn declarations obtained by the Register.

At least two incidents were reported to law enforcement at Riverside City College and Hemet by parents, according to sworn declarations, emails, complaints and police reports.

While the U.S. Center for SafeSport took jurisdiction over the investigation, USA Water Polo officials, despite the severity of the allegations, took no steps to take action against Hojreh, place Hojreh and IWP under greater scrutiny or make any effort to identify the girls allegedly sexually assaulted or attempt or provide assistance to them. IWP trained at the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos which was also the longtime home of the U.S. Olympic and national teams.,

“Has — have – has your office or anyone at your direction undertaken to determine the names and identities of the girls who have made allegations against Mr. Hojreh?” USA Water Polo CEO Christopher Ramsey was asked during an August 31 deposition.

“We have not,” he replied.

“Has USA Water Polo done anything to attempt to assist those girls in any way relative to the allegations that they’re making against Mr. Hojreh?,” Ramsey was asked.

“Not that I’m aware of,” Ramsey said.

Hojreh continued coaching at IWP and at Kennedy High School in La Palma until he was arrested in April 2018 on 22 charges ranging from sexual battery, lewd act with an individual under 14, and sexual penetration of a minor with a foreign object, according to arrest records and court filings.

He was not banned for life from the sport by the U.S. Center for SafeSport until Feb. 14, 2019, 10 months after his arrest and 20 months after USA Water Polo received the first allegations about Hojreh and IWP and sexual abuse.

Hojreh allegedly continued sexually abusing at least a dozen underage girls he coached between July 2017, when the first complaints about the coach and IWP were submitted to USA Water Polo, and his April 2018 arrest, according to police reports, court filing, and interviews.

Hojreh has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. He has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges.

USA Water Polo’s response to the Hojreh allegations mirrors USA Gymnastics, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic and Federal Bureau of Investigation’s handling of the Larry Nassar case, according to people familiar with the two cases.

USA Gymnastics CEO Steve Penny in June 2015 received allegations that Nassar, the longtime U.S. Olympic and USA Gymnastics women’s national team doctor, had sexually abused U.S. national team members.

While Penny shared the allegations with USOPC officials and the agent in charge of the FBI’s Indianapolis, where USA Gymnastics is located, he did not alert law enforcement or officials at Michigan State University where Nassar worked with the school’s athletic department and sports medicine clinic. Nassar sexually abused as many as 100 new victims in Michigan between the time when Penny was first alerted and September 2016 when allegations against Nassar were made public, according to court filings and interviews with more than a half-dozen people involved in multiple Nassar-related investigations.

“There are tremendous similarities between the Nassar case and USA Water Polo,” said Morgan A. Stewart, an attorney with Manly, Stewart & Finaldi and who represents 11 alleged Hojreh victims. “You’ve got another NGB essentially saying we’re not going to report this. We’re going to report this to SafeSport but we’re not going to report this to (law enforcement) to protect the kids. We’re going to protect our ass, but we’re not going to protect the kids.

“(Hojreh) continued to abuse young girls through the fall of 2017 and into the winter of 2018 despite (USA Water Polo) receiving a clear and unqualified notice that he was presenting a risk.

“All they really had to do was to say we’re either going to supervise him or tell him you can’t hold practice until this is done. Imagine if you’re a parent or one of these girls and you realize one phone call could have stopped him from continuing to abuse 12 girls? It would have taken only one phone call to say we’re going to ask you not to hold practices until (the investigation) is done.”

Ramsey and Christy Sicard, USA Water Polo senior director of SafeSport, “are believed to be under investigation by the U.S. Center for Safesport for failures to mandatorily report claims from parents and their own staff/volunteers regarding Hojreh’s involvement in childhood sexual abuse in 2017,” attorneys for a former IWP allege in a lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior Court last week.

U.S. Center for SafeSport has received a complaint that Ramsey and Sicard violated the center’s mandatory reporter requirements, according to a person familiar with the complaint. In addition to naming Ramsey and Sicard, the lawsuit filed last week also names Hojreh, USA Water Polo, and IWP, and alleges negligence, negligent supervision, hiring and retention, negligent failure to warn, train or educate, fraud, sexual battery and harassment, gender violence and false imprisonment.

The U.S. Center for SafeSport code states “Reporting such conduct to the Center does not satisfy an Adult Participant’s obligation to report to law enforcement or other appropriate authorities.’

“An adult Participant who fails to report actual or suspected Sexual Misconduct or Child Abuse to the Center and, when appropriate, to law enforcement may be subject to disciplinary action under the Center’s resolution procedures and may also be subject to federal or state penalties,” according to the SafeSport code. “An Adult Participant who learns of information and reasonably suspects that a child has suffered an incident of child abuse, including sexual abuse, shall immediately make a report of the suspected abuse to both Law Enforcement and the U.S. Center for SafeSport:”

In a Feb. 2, 2018 letter to USA Water Polo, Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), the chairman and ranking member of a U.S. Senate subcommittee investigating sexual abuse in American Olympics sports, asked “What reporting protocols for child and sexual abuse allegations are currently in place to ensure that all reports receive fair, timely, and thorough review by all appropriate parties, including law enforcement?”

“In the event that USA Water Polo were to receive a report regarding alleged child or sexual abuse by one of its members, volunteers, employees, officers or directors, it would immediately notify the appropriate law enforcement authority and the U.S. Center for SafeSport,” Ramsey wrote in response to the senators.

But Ramsey and Sicard acknowledged in depositions that they did not report the allegations against Hojreh raised in the four reports to law enforcement or Child Protective Services. Instead they relied on the accounts of parents that law enforcement had been contacted.

“To your knowledge, did a mandatory report get made based on the information that you received — that USA Water Polo received in July 2017 with respect to Mr. Hojreh? “ Ramsey was asked in his August deposition.

“Again, we’re aware that the police department authorities and the Center for Safe Sport had been notified of the information. We supplied the information that we had received,” Ramsey responded. “That’s what I’m aware of.”

“Okay. I’m pretty sure what you’re aware of but I’m asking, to your knowledge, did anyone make a mandatory report in or about July 2017 with respect to Mr. Hojreh?” the attorney followed up.

“Not to my knowledge, not beyond the materials we have already identified,” Ramsey said responding to complaints from three parents who allege they witnessed or had knowledge that their daughters were sexually assaulted by IWP players.

“Okay,” the attorney responded. “Now, I understand these — these reports … were sent along to the Center for Safe Sport. Were those reports sent along to any police agency as related to any investigation in this time period back in July 2017?”

“Well, again, I believe the police department — I know the police departments were notified. I don’t have correspondence between the parents and the police departments at that time, but we did confirm the police departments had been notified and were in position to undertake their own investigation,” Ramsey said. “We believe it had been reported.”

“I understand you believe it had been reported. My question is not whether or not you believe it had been reported. My question is: You received these letters through USA Water Polo. To your knowledge, did anyone take the step to send those letters to the police department?”

“I don’t know,” Ramsey answered.

Ramsey was asked if USA Water Polo had a “specific individual who is responsible for any interaction with law enforcement?”

“Ms. Sicard,” he said.

Sicard was asked in her deposition if after reading Alliance coach Smithson’s allegations recounted in Baron’s incident report if she contacted “law enforcement and report that as a mandated reporter in August 2017?”

“It was immediately forwarded to the U.S. Center for SafeSport,” she replied.

“Miss Sicard, please answer my question,” the attorney said. “Did you contact law enforcement and report that as a mandated reporter in August 2017?

“No,” Sicard answered.

But Stewart accused Ramsey and Sicard of shirking their responsibility.

“Their excuse is that it’s SafeSport responsibility once they turned it over to them,” Stewart said. “No, you’re the ones with the responsibility to protect the kids. Stop blaming someone else.”

In statement USA Water Polo said the organization “condemns, and has zero tolerance for, sexual misconduct. Following the initial reports regarding the alleged conduct of International Water Polo Club athletes, USA Water Polo ensured that reports were made to local law enforcement and the US Center for SafeSport, which, within the Olympic movement, has exclusive jurisdiction to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct.

“We decline to try the litigation involving Mr. Hojreh in the media, and we are confident that the facts will demonstrate USA Water Polo acted promptly, legally, and responsibly regarding these matters.”

The civil suit filed last week is the latest related to Hojreh’s alleged sexual abuse. The Anaheim Union High School District and Irvine Unified School District have also been named in suits that allege Hojreh sexually assaulted water polo athletes as teenagers on multiple occasions at IWP, Irvine’s University High, and Kennedy High School in the AUHSD.

In a suit filed in August a former University High player alleges Hojreh sexually abused, molested and harassed her between the ages of 15 and 17 under the guise of coaching while she was a student at the Irvine high school.

Hojreh was hired and terminated three times by the school, according to the court filing. The same University High employee who terminated Hojreh for abusive and threatening behavior in 2007, the suit alleges, re-hired him at the school in 2014 — then-athletic director Mark Cunningham.

Ramsey and Sicard presented different numbers in their depositions about the number of sexual misconduct cases the organization has had.

“Was USA Water Polo in receipt of 24 complaints about sexual misconduct by coaches in the period of 2011 and 2017?” Ramsey was asked.

“No, not to my knowledge,” he answered.

“Didn’t receive a single complaint about sexual misconduct during that time period?” he was asked again.

“Not to my knowledge,” Ramsey insisted.

But Sicard testified in her deposition that the organization had as many as 10 sexual misconduct cases.

USA Water Polo is a tax exempt, non-profit with 30,000 athlete members and an $11-million budget, according to the organization’s Internal Revenue Service filing for the 2018 fiscal year.

Ramsey has been USA Water Polo CEO since 2006, previously working as director of external affairs for the New York City Ballet. He received $399,053 in compensation, including a $96,000 bonus, from USA Water Polo during the 2018 fiscal year, according to the IRS filing. He also received $94,569 in compensation from related organizations, according to the 2018 filing.

During his deposition Ramsey was asked what were his “primary responsibilities as CEO of USA Water Polo?”

“I think it’s to carry out the vision of the board of directors,” Ramsey said

“Okay. Is the vision of the board of directors, is that something that is in a written form?” Ramsey was asked.

“Yes,” Ramsey responded.

“Okay. And where would I find that, or where would I –.”

“I will recite it for you,” Ramsey said, breaking in.

“Okay.”

“Is to win medals in international competition and to grow the sport of water polo,” Ramsey said.

Stewart described USA Water Polo “as a money collecting organization. Put together a team for the Olympics and don’t care about the other members.”

The Irvine City Council in October 2019 approved $250 million sports facility development in the Great Park that includes a $50 million state of the art water polo stadium and facility for the U.S. Olympic and national water polo teams.

“This is a dream come true,” Ramsey said at the time of the council’s decision.

The project is a partnership between the city, FivePoint Holdings, a developer, and USA Water Polo. Ramsey has said USA Water Polo raised $10 million for the project.

The most recent Hojreh suit alleges “that USA Water Polo’s refusal to confront, assist and resolve a sexual assault problem within its member organizations is for fear that it would reveal to donors existing problems, eliminating donor sources to construct the proposed training center”

Baron’s incident report, filed with USA Water Polo on July 10, 2017, focused on a game between IWP and Alliance the previous afternoon in the Inland Empire Challenge at Hemet High School and listed both Smithson and Hojreh as “offending” parties.

At one point, Baron recounted standing between the two coaches, asking them to help “in calming down their parents.” Hojreh complied, Baron said, but Smithson said, “I will not make them be quiet when their daughters are being sexually assaulted.”

At that point Baron called the game to an end with the score tied 5-5.

Smithson, according to Baron’s report, continued to yell at Hojreh.

“You know what you are teaching them,” Smithson yelled, according to Baron. “That’s why you got in trouble at JO’s. You are despicable for teaching your girls to play like that.”

Parents began to surround the three men. At one point, Baron wrote, Smithson charged through me and pushed” Hojreh.

“Since I was standing in-between them I was able to separate them. Then an International parent tried to charge up and push the Alliance coach. That parent was pulled back by other random people.”

Eventually order was restored with the help of Hemet parents and parents and coaches from other teams. IWP parents were escorted off the pool deck by Hemet parents “to avoid further incident.”

Smithson’s reference to “JOs” or Junior Olympics became clear with the submission of complaints to USA Water Polo about Hojreh and IWP that week.

All three parents have since verified their accounts in the reports under the penalty of perjury in sworn declarations. The Register is not naming the parents, per the paper’s policy, because of the nature of their daughters’ alleged abuse.

The U.S. Center for SafeSport code states that “prior to the Center expressly exercising jurisdiction over particular allegations regarding a particular Participant, the relevant organization (the USOPC, an NGB, an LAO, and/or an HPMO) has the authority to implement necessary and/or appropriate measures, up to and including a suspension, to address any allegations of misconduct. When the relevant organization has reason to believe that the allegations presented fall within the Center’s exclusive jurisdiction, the organization—while able to impose measures—may not investigate or resolve those allegations.”

Sicard was copied on a lengthy July 12 email complaint to USA Water Polo officials from the father of an Alliance player that detailed allegations that IWP players sexually assaulted Alliance players underwater during a Junior Olympics qualifying tournament in Lake Elsinore in June and the Inland Empire game in Hemet.

The email also alleged that four other teams had experienced similar abuse by IWP teams.

“I would imagine that nobody would want to make this issue up,” the parent wrote. “It has been very hard on some of our players emotionally with the outcome of the Hemet situation, the Police reports and all of the discussion afterwards. Five teams cannot make that up, unless it is truly happening despite the denials of the International coach. We heard all of his denials on deck, and what he said. These players and teams would have no reason to make this up, unless International was doing something that would create this type of reaction. Five teams could not fabricate this story because they do not even know each other.”

Hemet police were contacted and interviewed Alliance parents, according to the parent’s original complaint and his later sworn declaration.

Mark Cousineau, chairman of USA Water Polo’s Southern California zone, responded to the parent “I am aghast at the description of what was happening and first and foremost hope your daughter and the girls on are their team ok. I wanted to let you know we did receive your note and are reviewing. Give us a couple of days to review.”

Sicard forwarded the parent’s complaint to Kathleen Smith, an investigator with the U.S. Center for SafeSport. Ramsey was copied on the email to Smith titled “ International Girls Water Polo issues – CONFIDENTIAL.”

“Kathleen, Good afternoon,” Sicard wrote. “I hope you are well. I just received the below email from a concerned parent. The allegations in the email are similar in nature to the open case you are investigating. Please let me know if you have any additional questions for me or if I should be directing this to another person at SafeSport.”

Sicard was also one of three members of USA Water Polo’s national office staff that were copied on a July 14 complaint sent by another Alliance parent to Cousineau, Haz Ortega, the Southern California zone vice chairman, and Steve Redding, the zone’s head referee, detailing sexual assault allegations at a Junior Olympic tournament on June 25 and the July 9 Hemet game.

“While my daughter was defending (an) International player, she inappropriately grabbed her under her suit and put her fingers on her vagina/butt area, “ the father wrote of the Hemet game. “This occurred when the ball was with the Alliance goalie and the girls were transitioning. (The IWP player) went under water, inappropriately grabbed my daughter who screamed out ‘she grabbed by vagina.’ This resulted in the official ejecting my daughter. She exited the pool extremely disturbed and shaking. The officials did not stop the game to gain an understanding of what occurred.

“Shortly after this incident, another Alliance player was inappropriately touched (fingers in the vagina) by (another) International player. The Alliance player screamed out ‘you cannot touch me like that, it is gross’ and she exited the pool crying.

“..The seriousness of actions of the International Water Polo team and the lasting impact these incidents will likely have on numerous assaulted individuals cannot be ignored. I could not be more proud of the Alliance girls who had the courage to stand up to this injustice. At the young ages of 14 – 16 to be subjected to this while competing in a sport they love is so unfortunate.”

A mother of a Redlands Renegades Under-18 player made similar allegations in a report filed with USA Water Polo. The woman alleged that her daughter and another Renegades player were sexually assaulted by IWP players during a June 23 Junior Olympics tournament game at Riverside City College.

“I have attempted to describe these incidents as objectively as possible, however, please understand the terrible toll this is taking on my daughter, my family, and Redlands Renegades girls and their families,” the mother wrote.

In a sworn declaration last month, the mother wrote “it is my sincere belief that young girls of only 15 years old, would neither grab another player’s genitalia nor insert their fingers into the vagina or rectum of another player unless they were instructed and shown how and when to do so.”

Requesting that USA Water Polo take the matter “seriously” and “appropriate action” against Hojreh and IWP, the mother wrote in her original complaint, “I trust that I will receive immediate response to this report, even if it is merely to acknowledge receipt.”

But in her sworn declaration, the mother wrote, “When I reported this to USA Water Polo, I anticipated that they would investigate Hojreh, International Water Polo Club and its players, and take appropriate actions to remove them from membership within USA Water Polo based on this conduct. I was surprised and then angry as I received no response or even acknowledgment of my letter to USA Water Polo reporting this conduct.”