Janitor videotaped girls, police say
A custodian at Oaks Christian School was arrested this week on suspicion of secretly videotaping at least 18 female students in a locker room at the Westlake Village campus.
Hilario Hernandez Medina, 39, was arrested Monday at the school and booked on charges of possession and control of child pornography, said Steve Whitmore, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Medina worked for a maintenance contractor used by the school, according to the school’s headmaster. He had been at the school for about a year, Whitmore said.
Last weekend, an employee at the grades six-to-12 private school found a video camera wrapped in a T-shirt on a maintenance cart. The video camera contained what Whitmore called “inappropriate images” of girls. The school administration contacted the Sheriff’s Department.
In a letter to parents, Headmaster Jeffrey H. Woodcock described the alleged conduct “as a ‘Peeping Tom’ incident involving a video camera and the Girls’ Locker Room.”
Medina, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges, remains jailed in lieu of $160,000 bail. He is scheduled to appear in Van Nuys Superior Court on June 9 for a pretrial hearing.
“Obviously we are deeply saddened by the outrageous conduct that was perpetrated and the surreptitious invasion of our campus community,” Woodcock wrote. “I ask for your continued prayer for God’s grace as we work through this together.”
Woodcock said the school was fully cooperating with law enforcement.
“The important thing is that he has been removed so he cannot harm any children,” Whitmore said.
Oaks Christian opened in 2000 on a scenic hillside north of the 101 Freeway near the Ventura County line. Enrollment is about 1,000.
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carla.hall@latimes.com
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