Oregon man convicted of raping OC woman

An Oregon man has been convicted of raping a woman in a Costa Mesa hotel room, whom he met through an online dating service.

He then stalked the woman for a year and half, harassing her with phone calls and e-mails, according to the Orange County district atty.’s office.

Tooraj Aghminyoni Nakhei, 54, of Hillsborough, Ore., faces a maximum sentence of 15 years and four months in state prison. An Orange County Superior Court jury on Thursday found Nakhei guilty of one felony count each of forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, stalking, dissuading a witness from reporting a crime and on misdemeanor count of disobeying a court order.

Nakhei met the victim in 2003 through an online dating service, and the two had sporadic contact over the next four years. In May, 2007, Nakhei flew from Oregon to Orange County to meet the victim.

The woman agreed to meet Nakhei for dinner at the Costa Mesa hotel where he was staying. After the meal, Nakhei told the woman he had flowers for her in his hotel room. Once the woman was in the room, Nakhei raped her as she cried and begged for him to stop.

Embarrassed by the incident, the woman did not report the rape to police at the time.

Over the next year and a half, Nakhei called his victim hundreds of times and sent several e-mails to her and her family.

At times, Nakhei apologized to the woman for what had happened, but other times he called her names and told her he wished that she was dead.

The victim filed a police report about the stalking in December 2007.

Nakhei was arrested for stalking the woman near her home on Oct. 12, 2008.

The woman reported that Nakhei had raped her while he was in police custody.

In March, Nakhei violated a court-issued protective order that barred him for making contact with the victim. He approached the woman in the parking garage of her residence and attempted to get into her car with her, demanding she tell the court she had not been raped.

The woman attempted to call 9-1-1, but Nakhei ordered her not to call police. Nakhei was arrested the next day and has been in police custody since that time.

He is slated to be sentenced Dec. 11 at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana.