Every night for two years as she tried to fall asleep, a woman identified in court as Jane Doe M.L. said her sexual assault played through her mind. 

“I couldn’t get it to go away,” she said. 

The criminal trial continues this week for Arian Eteghaei, 23, a former UC Santa Barbara student accused of sexually assaulting six women. He faces multiple charges in connection to the alleged assaults, including forcible rape, attempted rape, forcible sexual penetration by foreign object, forcible oral copulation, false imprisonment by violence, and battery.

Two women already have testified against him in Santa Barbara County Superior Court in Santa Barbara, and a third took the stand this week.

Jane Doe M.L. alleges that Eteghaei orally copulated her without her consent and forced her to orally copulate him on Nov. 21, 2020, while she was visiting a friend in Isla Vista. 

He was a first-year student at UCSB in 2020-21 and was arrested and criminally charged in August 2021 on suspicion of assaulting three women. During the investigation, three more women came forward and reported their own assaults, according to authorities.

The woman who testified last week, identified as Jane Doe C.S. in court, said she was visiting a friend before they planned to drive home together for the Thanksgiving break in 2020.

During her visit, Eteghaei and some of his friends were at a small party at Jane Doe C.S.’s apartment that they invited him to after meeting him and his friends that night.

At the party, Jane Doe M.L. testified that everyone was drinking, and she and Eteghaei were flirting. 

At one point, Jane Doe M.L. said she and Eteghaei were consensually making out in the bathroom. However, when he allegedly put a hand on her throat and tried to have further sexual contact with her, she told him she didn’t want to go any further with him that night. 

Later that night, Jane Doe M.L. and Jane Doe C.S. were alone in the apartment with Eteghaei. The three of them were sitting on a couch in the living room with Eteghaei sitting between the two women.

Jane Doe M.L. testified that Eteghaei put his hand on her leg, going up her thigh, and then she saw him do the same thing to Jane Doe C.S.

During questioning, Andrew Flier, one of Eteghaei’s defense attorneys, asked whether they told Eteghaei to stop. Jane Doe M.L. said they moved next to each other so that Eteghaei was no longer between them.

Jane Doe M.L. said Eteghaei then picked up Jane Doe C.S., carried her to her room and shut the door behind him. She added that Jane Doe C.S. didn’t say anything when she was being carried away. 

Later in the evening, as she was attempting to fall asleep on the couch, Jane Doe M.L. said Eteghaei went into the living room, pulled a blanket off of her, climbed on top of her, started kissing her and orally copulated her. 

Flier again asked whether she said no, or told him to stop, and Jane Doe M.L. said she froze and didn’t say anything. Flier noted that from Eteghaei’s perspective, he didn’t hear any objection to what he was doing. 

Jane Doe M.L. testified that he then pushed her head down and penetrated her mouth, forcing her to orally copulate him.

She testified that she felt claustrophobic, that she was choking, and when she said, “I don’t want to do this,” he got back on top of her and forced himself inside her. 

Jane Doe M.L. testified that she said no and pushed against him, and when he stopped, Eteghaei kept repeating: “Please don’t be mad at me.”

He then handed her the shorts she had been wearing and went back into Jane Doe C.S.’s room, according to Jane Doe M.L.

Jane Doe M.L. reported the alleged assault on Oct. 1, 2021, after she learned that Eteghaei had been arrested on suspicion of assaulting three other women. 

The criminal trial started in late September and continues this week.

Previous witnesses have included Eteghaei’s ex-girlfriend, identified as Jane Doe H.O.C., who accused him of rape and assaulte at a party in June 2021.

Last week, Jane Doe N.S. testified that Eteghaei assaulted her while visiting her new room in Isla Vista.

Lauren Franco of the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office is prosecuting the case. Eteghaei is represented by attorneys Flier and Leonard Levine.