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A young man from Dublin was found guilty of committing multiple sexual assaults while in college, Santa Barbara County prosecutors announced Jan. 20 following a three-month trial that ended with a hung jury on more than a dozen other counts.
Arian Eteghaei, a former athlete at Dublin High School and student of University of California at Santa Barbara, was convicted of forcible rape of two victims, forcible sexual penetration and misdemeanor domestic violence, along with a special allegation that the crimes involved more than one victim, according to Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office.
Jurors were unable to reach a verdict on the remaining 14 counts, according to the DA’s office.
Eteghaei, 23, was remanded without bail and is set to remain in custody ahead of his sentencing, where he faces the potential of 30 years to life in state prison, prosecutors said.
As originally reported by Santa Barbara County news group Noozhawk, Eteghaei fled custody in Santa Barbara following the verdicts but was apprehended shortly after.
“The victims in this case showed remarkable bravery by coming forward, reporting the crimes, and taking the stand to testify during this lengthy trial,” Santa Barbara County District Attorney John T. Savrnoch said in the statement. “Their courage made it possible for the jury to hold the defendant accountable for his actions.”
Meanwhile, Andrew Flier, one of Eteghaei’s defense attorneys, thinks the case should have been declared a mistrial, given multiple occasions of a hung jury.
“We truly believe that pressure from other jurors and also the fact that the court is asking them to keep on going back — keep on deliberating — puts that indirect pressure on them, where they feel they gotta come back with verdicts,” Flier told the Pleasanton Weekly. “That’s just not the way the system should be.”
Officials at the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment further on the case when contacted by the Weekly.
Eteghaei was arrested on Aug. 13, 2021 at the Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport on sexual assault allegations. He was released on bail, placed on house arrest and resided with his parents in Dublin, according to a case file involving the later execution of an arrest warrant for Eteghaei and a related search warrant for his parents’ home that November.
At the time, Eteghaei had been charged with felony sexual assault of 11 women while a student at the UC Santa Barbara.
As for Eteghaei’s post-conviction flee attempt, “I don’t really consider it an escape; it’s hard to escape going maybe less than a couple hundred yards in a crowded Santa Barbara area with handcuffs on,” Flier told the Pleasanton Weekly. “I just think that it was the product of really feeling that he got a bad trial and the consequences were very serious.”
Eteghaei’s sentencing is scheduled for April 8 at the Santa Barbara County Superior Court.
“I don’t expect the court to grant our motion for a new trial … but we believe we will prevail,” Flier said. “We truly believe that this case will be overturned.”
