School Owner’s Molestation Trial Begins : He’s Charged With 21 Counts of Fondling Young Female Students

Alternately portrayed as a man who regularly took advantage of small girls or as a victim of overzealous prosecutors, Campbell Hugh Greenup went on trial Monday on charges of molesting eight young female students at his Northridge private school between 1978 and 1984.

Greenup, 58, would frequently place the girls, aged 4 to 11, on his lap during regular school hours, kissing their hair and rubbing their backs, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Kenneth R. Freeman.

Freeman said that with those students who did not protest, Greenup “put his hand lower and lower--until he went below the waist,” eventually fondling their buttocks and genitals.

Defense counsel Henry J. Hall countered that the children’s allegations against Greenup had resulted from leading questions by investigators in an era of public hysteria concerning child molestations.

“These were somewhat unique times in the annals of child molestation cases,” said Hall, noting publicity generated by the arrest of the owners and teachers of the McMartin Pre-School in Manhattan Beach weeks previously.

Political Motive Alleged

Hall also asserted that in April, 1984, when Greenup was arrested, former Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Robert H. Philibosian was seeking election to a new term, and that Philibosian had decided “to jump on” the molestation issue as a means of combating his low name recognition.

Later, outside the courtroom, Freeman characterized as “absolute and utter nonsense” Hall’s implication that Greenup was prosecuted in an attempt to increase Philibosian’s election chances. (Philibosian eventually lost to Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner).

Freeman said he plans to present about 50 witnesses during a trial that could last six months. Today’s witnesses are likely to include one young alleged victim, who, according to Freeman, will testify in open court rather than via closed-circuit camera as she did during Greenup’s preliminary hearing.

Greenup, who opened his small private school in 1978, is charged with 21 counts of fondling eight girls.

During opening statements, both lawyers described Greenup as a no-nonsense instructor who, in addition to acting affectionately toward his students, would also regularly discipline those who misbehaved.

‘Atmosphere of Fear’

Freeman contended that students lived in “an atmosphere of fear,” in which Greenup would lock misbehaving children in dark closets, force them to sit under his desk or strike them with clipboards.

Hall said that Greenup was “was very supportive of students.” But he agreed that the teacher would not “tolerate any nonsense in his class.”

Hall argued that the complaint that resulted in prosecution came from a boy who had misbehaved in class and who did not get along with Greenup. The boy’s parents, who owed Greenup several thousand dollars in tuition, called police. The allegations against Greenup came in an interview of the couple’s 5-year-old daughter--also a Greenup School student--in which a police officer asked leading questions, Hall asserted.