Pupils Were Curious About Sex, Bartholome Testifies

Terry E. Bartholome, a former Los Angeles city school teacher charged with molesting 17 of his pupils, Tuesday portrayed himself as a man besieged by children who were unabashed in expressing their curiosity about sex.

For example, Bartholome testified that he would not have masturbated in front of third-graders on two occasions had the children not asked to see his genitals.

“I believe that was very critical in the entire episode,” Bartholome, 49, said under cross-examination in his ongoing Los Angeles Superior Court trial. “Had they said, ‘Don’t expose yourself,’ I wouldn’t have done it.”

Through four days on the witness stand, Bartholome has consistently denied that he molested any of the children at the 68th Street School in South-Central Los Angeles, where he taught from late 1982 until early last year.

However, he has admitted that he drew male sex organs on the blackboard, discussed human reproduction in answer to students’ questions and let two girls examine a condom he carried in his billfold.

‘Mixed Emotions’

Bartholome is accused of 32 felonies, including the rape of a first-grader, and 13 misdemeanors. The “episodes,” as Bartholome described the misdemeanor incidents of masturbation, left him with “mixed emotions,” making him feel like “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”

“I felt somewhat sensually excited that I was the center of attraction,” he said, “but at the same time, I felt disgusted that I was involved in that sort of thing.”

In often testy exchanges with the prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Rita Stapleton, Bartholome branded as “ridiculous” the children’s testimony that he fondled them or asked them to touch him. The former teacher said pressure from police investigators may have caused them to fabricate such incidents.

He, himself, felt similar pressure, Bartholome said, when he signed a statement on Jan. 4, 1985, saying that “at times, some of the girls grabbed at my penis.”

Felt Intimidated

“I felt very intimidated, and I was befuddled and there was some authority figure here that was telling me what they wanted, and so because of my confusion, I went along and signed something that I shouldn’t have signed,” he said.

In one instance, Bartholome testified, a third-grader may have “fantasized” that he rubbed his penis against her buttocks.

“I believe that she could make up a story very easily . . . because that’s her nature . . . ,” he said. “She was unreliable. She fantasized a lot and told lies.”

Although Bartholome had earlier testified that two therapists had been unable to explain his behavior, which left him feeling suicidal for about four months, he said Tuesday that his advancing age and his despondency over his career may have had some influence.

Describing himself as an expert on gifted eighth and ninth graders, he said he had been prevented from using his expertise, after his transfer to 68th Street School from the 107th Street School. The transfer took place after a parent lodged a sex-abuse complaint but later refused to testify against Bartholome.