The Region - News from May 30, 1986

The lawyer for Terry Bartholome, a former Los Angeles schoolteacher accused of molesting 17 girls, pleaded with Superior Court Judge Fred Woods to have his client moved to the County Jail’s hospital ward, where he might be better protected from assaults by fellow inmates. Attorney Sherwin Edelberg told Woods that his client had been punched and knocked down in the Criminal Courts Building lockup after a fellow inmate read news reports about Bartholome’s trial. “The notoriety has reached the point where he has now been assaulted,” Edelberg said. “It would seem appropriate at this point for the court to order a news blackout.” The media has reported that Bartholome, 49, admitted in court that he had exposed himself and masturbated in front of pupils at the 68th Street Elementary School in 1984. Woods declined to move Bartholome or to order a news blackout, but agreed to ask jail officials to find the best way to ensure Bartholome’s physical and emotional well-being.