Former UCLA water polo player from Glendale sentenced to 180 days in jail

A former UCLA water polo player from Glendale who was accused of rape last year pleaded no contest on Thursday to one count each of assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury and criminal threats.

Hakop Kaplanyan, 20, was sentenced to 180 days in jail, five years of probation and 60 days of community labor.

The remaining charges — which included two counts each of sexual penetration by a foreign object and assault with intent to commit a felony, and one count each of forcible rape, sexual battery, false imprisonment and possession of matter depicting a minor engaging in sexual conduct — were dismissed as part of a plea deal.

Additionally, Kaplanyan was ordered to receive a year of sexual-offender counseling, but does not have to register as a sex offender, according to Ricardo Santiago, spokesman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

The case involved three alleged victims of sexual assault who reported that the incidents occurred between Oct. 1, 2012, and April 2, 2013.

Kaplanyan was ordered to surrender in March.

According to Kaplanyan’s attorney George Mgdesyan, the jail time, which he said was not originally included in the prosecution’s offer, came as a “shock to the family.”

Kaplanyan, who is now a student at Los Angeles Valley College where he plays water polo, is doing well academically, Mgdesyan said.

“This man’s lost a lot,” Mgdesyan said. “This is a kid who went to college, it’s a dream to go to UCLA, be a water polo player and before you know it, his dreams are quashed and he’s kicked out of school and can’t play water polo” because of allegations which Mgdesyan called “not true” and “suspect, at best.”

He added that Kaplanyan has maintained his innocence and that the prosecution’s case had holes in it.

For example, during one of the alleged assaults, there was another person in the room, but “nobody heard anything,” Mgdesyan said. “There’s no forensic evidence of any struggle or any fight or anything like that.”

Kaplanyan attended Clark Magnet High in La Crescenta, but played four years of varsity water polo for Hoover High and was one of the most decorated water polo players in area history.