Former UCLA water polo player from Glendale indicted on rape charges

A former UCLA freshman water polo player from Glendale was indicted with forcible rape and other charges on Monday, according to officials from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

Hakop Jack Kaplanyan, 19, pleaded not guilty before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo, according to a statement from the District Attorney’s Office.

Kaplanyan is charged with one felony count each of forcible rape; false imprisonment by violence; possession of matter depicting a minor engaging in sexual conduct; and a misdemeanor count of sexual battery by restraint, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Liliana Gonzalez.

He also faces two felony counts each of sexual penetration by a foreign object and assault with intent to commit rape.

His bail was set at $590,000, which he posted Monday afternoon, officials said.

The charges involve three alleged sexual assault victims who reported the incidents happened between Oct. 1, 2012 and April 2, 2013. He was arrested on this past Friday, Feb. 28. If convicted, Kaplanyan faces 37 years and four months in state prison.

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.

In his senior season, Kaplanyan led Hoover to the CIF-Southern Section semifinals for the first and only time in program history as he scored 139 goals to go with 103 steals and 47 assists.

He ended his career, one in which he was three times voted the All-Area Boys’ Water Polo Player of the Year, with 593 career goals, which in 2011 was second all-time in state history.

The run included a sophomore season in which he tallied 229 goals, which at the time was a single-season CIF-Southern Section record before being broken in 2011.

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Follow Nicole Charky on Twitter: @Nicosharki.

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