Ventura County Man Indicted for Allegedly Threatening Woman During Decades-Long Harassment Campaign Targeting Her Family
LOS ANGELES – A Port Hueneme man was named today in a federal grand jury indictment that charges him with making threats to rape and kill a student who is the daughter of a woman he allegedly began stalking and harassing in 1991.
Serge Agopian, 49, was named in a three-count indictment that charges him with sending threatening communications in an email and letters sent through the U.S. Mail.
The charges against Agopian stem from three identical threatening communications he allegedly sent anonymously to the student in April. The victim is the daughter of a woman Agopian began harassing when they attended the University of California, Santa Barbara, according to a criminal complaint previously filed in this case.
During the investigation, FBI agents interviewed the victim’s mother, who described how Agopian apparently saw her at a party in 1991, contacted her “out of the blue” even though they had never met, and began sending “unsolicited roses, cassette tapes with recorded love songs, poetry, letters, and condoms to her residence,” according to the affidavit in support of the criminal complaint. The victim’s mother told investigators that she asked Agopian to stop all communications, but she believed he continued to send packages anonymously after she moved to her parents’ residence – including roses with dog feces and an item that resembled a bomb.
The victim’s mother obtained restraining orders against Agopian that were in effect for nearly 10 years. Nevertheless, Agopian continued to contact her, including in the fall of 1991 in the UCSB bookstore, where he pushed her into a shelf of books, resulting in Agopian’s arrest, according to the affidavit.
Agopian later filed a defamation lawsuit against the victim’s mother. For many years after the lawsuit was resolved, the victim’s mother and her family received “very vulgar, lewd, and obscene letters,” which she believed came from Agopian, according to the affidavit.
The criminal complaint notes that one of the letters sent to the victim in April had a fingerprint that matched fingerprints obtained from Agopian during the restraining order proceedings.
An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
The indictment charges Agopian with one count of threats by interstate communications and two counts of mailing threatening communications, each of which carries a statutory maximum penalty of five years in federal prison.
Agopian was arrested on August 5 pursuant to a criminal complaint that alleged one count of making threats by interstate communication. Agopian is scheduled to be arraigned on the indictment on September 15.
This matter is being investigated by the FBI and the Los Angeles Police Department.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Damaris Diaz of the Violent and Organized Crime Section.
