Bitter divorce, threats of violence between slain California doctor, ex-wife, court records show

A divorce battle that spanned 15 years between a Woodland Hills doctor and his ex-wife included financial and custody disputes as well as a series of restraining orders with claims of threats of violence, according to some of the court records reviewed by the Southern California News Group.

Dr. Hamid Mirshojae was shot and killed on Aug. 23 while walking to his SUV from his Woodland Hills-based medical clinic. On Thursday, his ex-wife, 53-year-old Ahang Mirshojae, was among five people arrested on suspicion of conspiring to commit his murder. She was being held without bail, police said.

On Friday, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office accused 41-year-old Evan Hardman, of Tomball, Texas, of pulling the trigger and that he and another man, 26-year-old Sarallah Jawed, carried out the slaying for financial gain.

Authorities have not said how they linked the five people to the doctor’s slaying, nor have they disclosed a possible motive.

Ahang Mirshojae filed for divorce from her husband in 2009, citing irreconcilable differences, court documents show.

What followed was a series of threats and years of legal battles, the most recent a February lawsuit filed by Hamid Mirshojae claiming his ex-wife had transferred ownership stakes in properties to family members to avoid paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in settlement funds and attorneys fees owed to him.

Both Mirshojae and his ex-wife claimed to be in fear for their lives in requests for restraining orders, which were filed among other documents.

The court records show Hamid and Ahang Mirshojae worked together at Woodland Hills Medical Center, of which Hamid Mirshojae was awarded full ownership in the couple’s 2010 divorce, he wrote in a request for a restraining order filed in February 2017.

His ex-wife continued working at the clinic until November 2016, after Hamid Mirshojae claimed he caught her “embezzling substantial sums of money from the Clinic,” and fired her, he wrote in court papers.

But the threats appeared to start shortly after Ahang Mirshojae filed for divorce. In October 2009, less than a month after the petition was filed with the court, Hamid Mirshojae filed for a restraining order, claiming Ahang Mirshojae punched him with both fists one night, then followed him to work the next day and blocked the exit, he wrote.

“If I had a knife I would stab you to death,” he claimed she said in front of the then-couple’s three children. He wrote, “I am fearful for my life and I am scared. My children are scared.”

Things appeared to come to a head in early 2017, as three more requests for restraining orders were filed, one by each of the Mirshojaes and another by Ahang Mirshojae’s fiancé, Allen Yadegar, court records show.

Ahang Mirshojae filed for a restraining order on Dec. 8, 2016 claiming that Hamid Mirshojae showed up at her Calabasas home, threatened to kill her and “split me open to make me squeal like a pig,” while he held a bloody hunting knife, and claimed he also made threats to hunt down her then-fiance and kill him. During the threat, she wrote, he pushed her and grabbed her arm and hand, causing bruising.

Yadegar filed for a restraining order less than two weeks later claiming Hamid Mirshojae had entered his business “with two hired guys and came after me forcing me to call LAPD,” he wrote, adding the men had multiple rifles and handguns.

In February 2017, Hamid Mirshojae filed for a restraining order, claiming his ex-wife continued to come to the clinic even though she was no longer employed and that she physically assaulted him while she was there on Dec. 14, 2016.

“In addition, her fiancé told me he had a weapon and that he was going to kill me,” Hamid Mirshojae wrote in a declaration included with his court papers, adding that she had earlier told the clinic’s website operator that “this was ‘war’ and that she will ‘burn everything to the ground’ if she does not get her way.”

Allegations against Ahang Mirshojae didn’t only come from her ex-husband. The couple’s oldest son also filed a restraining order against his mother and Yadegar in August 2017 claiming they assaulted him while forcefully taking keys to an SUV that belonged to the clinic.

When the son, who was sitting in another vehicle outside his father’s Encino home, refused to hand over the keys, Ahang Mirshojae and the Yadegar allegedly assaulted him and took the keys from his pocket; then Yadegar hit him while driving away in the SUV, injuring his ankle, the son wrote.

The son also claimed to have seen his mother doing surveillance of the home where Hamid Mirshojae and the son lived at the time, and said she appeared to be trying to get inside when the doctor was not there.

Yadegar has not been charged with any crimes related to the claims of violence or Hamid Mirshojae’s killing.

Ahang Mirshojae has yet to be charged in connection with her ex-husband’s death, but police said they plan to present their case against her and Randolph to the DA’s office Monday.