Custodian Who Lived at School With Teen-Age Girl Pleads Guilty

A 60-year-old elementary school custodian who lived illegally in a school office with a 17-year old girl for three months pleaded guilty Monday in Van Nuys Municipal Court to charges of having unlawful sex with a minor and possessing cocaine.

J. C. Newte, who remained free on $10,000 bail, was ordered to appear Jan. 14 in Van Nuys Superior Court for sentencing. He could be sentenced to a maximum of three years and eight months in prison, court officials said.

Newte had worked at Ranchito Avenue Elementary School in Panorama City for four years before his arrest, said the school principal, Norman Bernstein.

Bernstein said he returned to his office about 8 p.m. on Sept. 11, and discovered the girl sitting at a desk in the nurse’s office, with a set of pass keys to the school building. After questioning the girl, whose name was not released, school security officers went to Newte’s office, where they found bedrolls, food and a television set. Bernstein said the two had been living in the school since July.

It was part of Newte’s job to work at night, Bernstein said, but Newte did not have permission to live there.

Newte’s office, on the first floor, was visible from most of the rest of the school, Bernstein said, but the homesteading couple was not discovered sooner because classes had started only the day before and the girl was in the school only in the evening.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Linda Greenberg said she dropped two other charges, furnishing cocaine to a minor and furnishing amphetamines to a minor, for lack of evidence.

The girl was taken into custody but was released without being charged.