A Laguna Beach rug merchant was convicted Monday of sexually assaulting two women in his store more than a decade ago.
When the Orange County district attorney’s office filed charges against Saeid Maralan, 65, of Laguna Niguel, in September 2011, he was charged with sexual assaults against eight women, and a month later three more accusers came forward. In the ensuing years, the case was whittled down to two victims he was charged with attacking and two others whose allegations were used in the trial to provide further evidence of a pattern of conduct. Black And Grey Rug
At the time of the assaults, Maralan owned and operated two rug stores — one in San Clemente and the other in Laguna Beach, Deputy Dist. Atty. Tara Meath said in her opening statement.
Maralan, who was out on bail on a GPS monitoring device, was taken into custody Monday after being convicted. He initially asked Orange County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Menninger to sentence him immediately, but he changed his mind after consulting with his attorney.
Maralan faces 15 years to life in prison when he is sentenced Jan. 12.
During the trial, two felony counts of indecent exposure with a prior conviction were dismissed Oct. 30 because the accusers were out of the country and unavailable to testify.
Maralan was convicted of two counts of sexual penetration by foreign object, a count of rape and a count of attempted oral copulation, all felonies.
Jurors also found true sentencing enhancements for multiple victims.
“It’s disappointing,” Maralan’s attorney, John Barnett, told reporters.
One of the accusers came to the store at 222 Ocean Ave. April 10, 2011, with her mother to discuss a deal to sell him some rugs, Meath said.
When the defendant greeted the women, he kissed both on the cheek and made “sexual innuendo” comments to the daughter, Meath said.
“She was in shock. She didn’t know how to handle the situation,” Meath said.
Later, Maralan took the daughter to a back room and “came on to her” immediately and pulled her pants down, Meath said.
As the woman struggled to push him away, he persisted and pulled her pants down again and sexually assaulted her, Meath said. At one point he touched himself with his pants down until he ejaculated, she said.
The two returned to the accuser’s mother, completed the deal and the women left, Meath said.
The daughter subsequently told an aunt what had happened, and the sexual assault was reported to police, Meath said.
The woman underwent a sexual assault exam and gave her pants to police for testing, Meath said.
Another accuser contended she was assaulted in March 2010 but didn’t come forward to police until she read about Maralan being charged in September 2011, Meath said.
Maralan steered that victim to a back room area as well, Meath said.
“She wasn’t as successful pushing him off,” Meath said.
“She didn’t report right away because she was embarrassed and shocked,” according to the prosecutor.
The woman continued to do business with Maralan afterward, but she “thought it was an isolated incident” and she could “control” any future dealings with him, Meath said.
Another woman who was selling Persian bags wanted to put them on display at the defendant’s store, Meath said. During a visit at the store, he took her to a back room and groped her chest, Meath alleged.
Maralan also invited a hairstylist to the store to cut his hair and steered her to the back room, grabbing her and saying he loved her and “needs attention,” Meath said.
Maralan was convicted of sexual battery in April of 2000 in Los Angeles County, Meath said.
Barnett, the defense attorney, noted that the accuser who went to the store with her mother alleged she was sexually assaulted in a small space next to a water heater during the business day with customers and co-workers around.
“She says she was attacked in the middle of the day with her mother 30 feet away with workers coming and going,” Barnett said.
He said they arrived for an appointment with Maralan at 3:35 p.m., were in the closet at 4:05 p.m. and came back out to complete the deal from 4:10 p.m. to about 5:07 p.m., Barnett said. They also had some wine with the rug store merchant, he added.
The other accuser said she was “raped” and “put on top of rugs,” Barnett said.
“She says there was a male employee who saw her screaming and yelling and running off,” Barnett said. “This is in the middle of the day while customers are coming in and out and employees coming in the side entrance.”
During closing arguments, Barnett harped on the woman’s claim that she would never return to the store alone because she feared the defendant, which the defense attorney said was contradicted by store surveillance video.
“She perjured herself,” Barnett argued.
The woman said she went to the store with her sister, Barnett said. “But she went there by herself.”
When confronted with the surveillance video, “her fault position is to lie,” Barnett said, adding she claimed it wasn’t her but then acknowledged it was her.
“She’s walking in very confident, very unafraid,” Barnett said.
The woman continued doing business with Maralan and then submitted an invoice for $19,680 at one point that began with “Dear Saeid,” Barnett said.
When she didn’t get the money, she came forward after “reading about [the case] in the newspaper,’’ Barnett said.
The other accuser was “desperate for money” to pay for health issues with her mother, the defense attorney said.
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