Ex-School Owner Greenup Guilty of Molesting Girls

The former owner of a private elementary school in Northridge was convicted today of 18 felony lewd conduct charges for molesting six of his female students.

A Superior Court jury, which listened to more than five months of testimony during the retrial of Campbell Hugh Greenup, 59, deliberated for just two hours before rendering its verdict.

Greenup stood straight as the verdict was read and showed no sign of emotion. Superior Court Judge David A. Horowitz ordered him immediately into custody, and the former teacher was led away by the bailiff.

Greenup could receive a prison term of 36 years and 4 months when he is sentenced May 4, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Kenneth Freeman.

Freeman had alleged that the slight, white-haired school owner fondled eight girls, aged 4 to 11, at his Greenup School between 1979 and 1984.

Greenup’s public defender, Henry Hall, said he plans to appeal the case, questioning how the jury could have come up with a verdict so quickly with so much evidence to consider. “How could they possibly evaluate all of this evidence in two hours?” he asked.

Greenup’s first trial ended in a mistrial last May after jurors--at odds over the credibility of the child witnesses and Greenup’s intent in touching the girls--deadlocked on the charges.