After weeks of criminal trial testimony from victims, investigators and medical experts, Arian Eteghaei took the stand this week to testify in his own defense, denying all allegations of sexual misconduct. 

Eteghaei, 23, is a former UC Santa Barbara student accused of sexually assaulting six women. He faces multiple charges in connection with the alleged assaults, including forcible rape, attempted rape, forcible sexual penetration by foreign object, forcible oral copulation, false imprisonment by violence, and battery.

Multiple women identified as victims, who are referenced anonymously as Jane Does in court, have testified against him since the trial started in September.

One of the women, a former girlfriend identified as Jane Doe H.O.C., testified that Eteghaei raped and assaulted her in June 2021 during a prom-themed party hosted at his apartment on Del Playa Drive in Isla Vista. 

On Monday, Eteghaei testified that the weekend before the party he was vacationing in Malibu with a woman named Mia, but he told Doe H.O.C. he was visiting friends. 

“At the time I was a cheater,” he said. “I’m not proud of it, but that’s what I was doing at the time.”

At one point during the party, he found Doe H.O.C. in his room going through texts on his laptop between himself and Mia, discovering that they had spent the weekend together, and he testified that she started yelling at him. 

Eteghaei testified that she “seemed very upset” and kept saying, “How could you do this?”

He said they argued, but he never touched her or stopped her from leaving his room. He then explained that they had what he believed to be consensual sex and that during their sexual encounter she never yelled for help nor did she ask for help when his roommate came into the room.

In October, Doe. H.O.C. testified that she told him she didn’t want to have sex with him, that she used her hands to try to block him from her genitalia, and that she “never stopped saying no.”

She also testified that he tried to assault her in his bathroom later that evening. Eteghaei testified that he only followed her to the bathroom because the door didn’t lock, and that he didn’t attempt to have sexual relations in the bathroom. 

He explained that Doe H.O.C. didn’t accuse him of rape until two days after the party, which he repeatedly denied. 

Three days after the party, Eteghaei said, he and Doe H.O.C agreed to meet up. She picked him up in her car, and they drove to the Goleta Pier, where they “hooked up” in her car.

He also explained that they were texting every day up to June 15 about him cheating, and she recommended that he go to therapy and recommended four self-improvement books for him to read.

Eteghaei said he thought the goal was for him to work on himself over the summer so they could get back together in the fall. 

He ended up getting arrested on Aug. 13, 2021. 

Throughout their relationship, Eteghaei testified, he and Doe H.O.C. routinely argued about him cheating on her, which he did “many times.”

“I never should have done that, and I regret that completely,” Eteghaei said. “I’m a cheater, but I never raped anyone — I know that.”

Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Von Deroian ordered that his comment about never raping anyone be erased from the record, meaning the jury can’t consider his comment during their verdict deliberations. 

Eteghaei also faces sexual assault allegations from a woman identified as Jane Doe N.S., who testified in October that he put his hand down her pants and assaulted her on Oct. 7, 2020, the day she moved to Isla Vista. 

Eteghaei testified that while he and Doe N.S. were kissing on her bed, he did put a hand in her pants, just past her waistband, but never touched her vagina because she grabbed his hand and told him to stop. 

He explained that he was disappointed because he thought she wanted to “hook up,” so he went on his phone and started messaging other women. 

When she saw him messaging people, Eteghaei said she got out of her bed and told him he should leave because it was getting late, but he told her she could sleep on the floor.

“It was very disrespectful, and I shouldn’t have done that,” Eteghaei said. 

He went on to explain that he was “buzzed” from alcohol at the time and was disappointed she didn’t want to hook up. 

Additionally, he testified that Doe N.S. never said anything to him about him assaulting her, but she did seem frustrated by him telling her to sleep on the floor. 

He added that he ran into the woman a few months later at a party, and she warned him not to go a certain way because the police were ticketing people for open alcohol containers, and that she never said “anything negative” to him during that time. 

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

After making out with the friend in her room, Eteghaei testified that he went into the living room, where Doe M.L. was sitting on the couch. He said he sat next to her, wearing boxers, and began kissing her. 

He testified that she didn’t do anything to stop him and she kissed him back. He then said that he removed her pajama shorts and orally copulated her, during which she played with his hair but never told him to stop. 

He also told the jury that the woman orally copulated him for less than a minute before she said she wanted to stop. Eteghaei testified that he asked if she wanted to have a threesome with him and the friend, but when she said no, he went back to the friend’s room.

The criminal trial started in September. Eteghaei was arrested and criminally charged in August 2021 on suspicion of assaulting three women.

During the law enforcement investigation, three more women came forward and reported their own assaults, according to authorities.  

The trial is scheduled to continue next week, with the defense and prosecution expected to finish presenting evidence before the holidays.