Ventura Coach Accused of Sex With 2 Students : Conduct: School officials also charge Ventura High’s Dale Hahn with suggestive, improper behavior. His lawyer denies wrongdoing.

Ventura High School’s swimming coach had sex with two female students and made advances and sexually suggestive comments to others, school officials charged in a document filed Thursday with the state.

Coach Dale Hahn also raised the grade of one of the girls he slept with to an A when it should have been a C or a D, according to the formal list of accusations.

In addition, the document also accused him of once discussing sex with his chemistry class for an entire period, purchasing alcohol for minors and yelling profanities while coaching the water polo and swim teams.

Hahn, who has been on paid leave since December, said on Thursday, “there is nothing I want to say” about the allegations. His lawyer also declined comment on specific allegations, but insisted that his client would be vindicated.

Ventura police recently began an investigation of Hahn after being contacted by school officials last month, Sgt. Bob Anderson said. Detectives will begin interviews in the next few days, he said. “We’re just getting going here.”

The allegations by the Ventura Unified School District marked the second sex scandal at Ventura High School in the past 15 months. Football Coach Harvey Kochel, who had the most winning-game record in the school’s history, was convicted in January, 1993, of having unlawful sex with a 15-year-old student.

Ventura schools Supt. Joseph Spirito said the notoriety from Kochel’s prosecution and the recent allegations against Hahn have been difficult for the school’s teachers and students.

“They’ve certainly had their share of ups and downs,” he said. “They’re feeling like any group would feel right now, ‘My goodness gracious, not again.’ ”

Some students and parents continued to come to Hahn’s support; others said they are concerned about the impact of the case on the school’s image. “It was going around school today,” said Hannah Murray, a 16-year-old junior. “I was mad because our school is always the bad school of the city.”

Mary Jo McGrath, an attorney hired by the school district to investigate Hahn, said she is aware of the anguish at the school.

“And yet, I want people to know this is what is in most every high school in our country. That is my professional opinion, so I hope Ventura High School is not held up as some kind of oddball example,” she said.

Hahn, 44, has taught science and coached the water polo and swim teams at Ventura High School for 20 years. He is divorced and has two sons, said Richard Schwab, his lawyer.

“He has indicated to us there is no substance to any allegations that would lead to any disciplinary action,” he said.

“I hope that everybody will keep an open, objective and unbiased view that these are allegations and accusations and certainly do not rise to the level of being any evidence or proof. Mr. Hahn, I feel confident, will be vindicated,” Schwab said.

Hahn’s mother, Lola, who was at home with her son Thursday, added: “I don’t have any comment, but my son is a nice guy.”

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The 15-page list of 90 allegations against Hahn was filed with the state Office of Administrative Hearings in Los Angeles on Thursday as the district’s first step in the process of firing Hahn.

Hahn will now be entitled to a full hearing by a three-panel state commission made up of an administrative law judge and two educators. In the meantime, the district is also moving to suspend him without pay.

McGrath said the district hired her firm to investigate Hahn after a female student told Ventura High School teacher David Hess of flirtatious comments Hahn had made. Hess then wrote a memo to Assistant Principal Helena Reaves summarizing the girl’s statements.

According to the document, Hahn asked the girl, “Have you ever considered going out with me?” and “Have you ever considered me as a boyfriend?”

He also told her: “You have sexy legs,” and “You don’t always have to do what your parents say,” according to the statement of charges.

McGrath said she interviewed about 50 students, former students, teachers and school officials, and described her investigation as “thorough and aggressive.”

The attorney said she eventually found a former student who allegedly had a sexual relationship with Hahn when she was a senior.

That relationship occurred in the 1988-89 school year when Hahn “initiated a relationship with (the student) based on ‘counseling’ her about her parents’ recent divorce and her breakup with her boyfriend of two years,” the document says.

During the rest of that year, Hahn paid for the girl and one of her friends to go the Getty Museum, a Kim Carnes concert, a production of Phantom of the Opera and other events, the document says. And he bought the girl diamond and pearl earrings for Christmas, the document says.

After inviting the girl over to watch a movie in December, 1988, Hahn began kissing the girl and said, “I want to make love to you,” the document says. He then had sex with her without using birth control, according to accusations detailed in the document.

The same month, Hahn told the girl she had an A in his chemistry class, although she actually had earned a C or a D average, the document says. During the same school year, Hahn allegedly asked the girl’s friend if he could see her breasts and said to her, “When you’re 18, you’re mine.”

Other allegations in the document accuse Hahn of:

* Purchasing alcohol for about 16 students while he chaperoned a party at a beach house after the Ventura High prom.

* Talking about sex for an entire period with his chemistry class in the 1992-93 school year.

* Making flirtatious comments that offended female students, such as telling one last year, “You look good today,” and “Your boyfriend is lucky.”

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Last month, a male student told investigators that a female friend said she had slept with Hahn last fall after going out to dinner with him, the document said.

And on four separate occasions, beginning in 1989, Assistant Principal Reaves warned Hahn to stop using profanities in the classroom and while coaching or risk suspension without pay.

Despite the allegations, several students, former students and swimmers defended Hahn on Thursday. They said they believed his comments and actions have been misinterpreted.

“If he did say those things, it was a joke, like a guy saying, ‘Hey, babe, I love you,’ ” said Marrie Murphy, 16, who is on the swim team.

Lindsay Crabbe, a sophomore, said: “I think (the allegations) are bull. Hahn is just a scapegoat for Kochel. I had him two hours a day (for class and swim team) and never saw him do any of those things.”

Crabbe said she was called into the office by investigators and felt they were trying to put words in her mouth.

“They tried to pull things out of you. ‘Has he ever done this? Has he ever done that?’ They pressed you to say, ‘Yeah.’ They wanted to make him guilty and get him out of there,” she said.

And Katherine Pierce, who graduated in 1989 and was on the swim team, said Hahn sometimes hugged her, but never in an inappropriate way. “I think of him as being a very well-respected man on campus. He’s a personable teacher,” she said.

But Chris Connolly, who was on the water polo team the same year, said he was not surprised to hear of the allegations. He said the coach had a reputation for hugging female students frequently.

“I know there were certain girls he liked. He would take them places and hang out with them.” he said. “I thought it was kind of weird.”

Times staff writers Tina Daunt, Peggy Y. Lee and Jeff Meyers, and correspondent Matthew Mosk contributed to this story.