Teacher Gets 36 Years for Molesting Girls

Saying former Northridge private school operator Campbell Hugh Greenup had not only “violated his sacred trust” as a teacher but also created “tremendous pain and suffering,” a judge sentenced him Monday to the maximum 36 years in prison for molesting six girl students.

“You put parents in the situation of not believing their children when they had every reason to believe their children,” Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David A. Horowitz said, noting that the offenses at the small elementary school had continued over a six-year period.

” . . . The violation goes far beyond the six victims in this case,” the judge added. “It goes to all the students there at the school and their parents . . . and it also affects, I believe, the public in general and their trust--or mistrust--of teachers, especially grammar school teachers.”

The white-haired Greenup, 60, who taught in the Los Angeles public school system before opening his own school in 1978, stood quietly as Horowitz imposed the sentence. As he was taken to the lockup, Stephanie Mason, one of his six children, yelled: “We love you, Dad. We’re right here. We’re behind you all the way.”

Last month, after hearing five months of testimony, the jury in Greenup’s retrial took two hours to find him guilty of all 18 counts of lewd acts involving students aged 4 to 11. His first trial last year ended in a hung jury.

In an emotional speech Monday, a parent of one of the victims told the judge that Greenup had used her daughter “for his own sick perverted needs, to give her experience, knowledge and education that no child of 5 or 6 should ever have. He opened up doors of perversion to an impressionable baby.”

Turning to the defendant, the woman said: “To you, Mr. Greenup, I say one thing: May God forgive you. Because I can’t.”

Just outside the courtroom, Mason and a sister, Janine Abercrombie, confronted the woman, accusing her of making similar allegations against other people, including a policeman. “We know the truth,” Abercrombie shouted at her.

“That’s a lie,” the woman retorted.

Among the other spectators at the long and frequently acrimonious hearing were a number of the jurors and several parents who had testified in Greenup’s behalf and continue to support him.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Kenneth R. Freeman urged Horowitz to give Greenup the longest possible sentence, arguing that the defendant had opened the school “for the express purpose of having a pool of children that he could molest.”

Calling Greenup “the most dangerous of criminals” because of his ability to engender trust, Freeman said he could be expected to continue molesting children. Moreover, the prosecutor said, “he’s the opposite of remorseful. He blames us for what he did.”

But Deputy Public Defender Henry J. Hall disagreed, describing his client as “a minimal danger to the public” who had shown remorse by talking of suicide. In asking for probation, Hall pointed out that Greenup had been convicted of fondling the children--”not the most heinous” of lewd conduct crimes.

Citing Greenup’s age, Hall said: “This is not a case that cries out for life in prison without possibility of parole.”

New Trial Sought

Earlier in Monday’s proceedings, Hall asked the judge for a new trial, in part because the jury had reached its verdict so swiftly. Accusing Freeman of telling jurors “to just go out and vote” without reviewing evidence presented through 141 witnesses, the defense attorney said this is “not the way the jury system is supposed to operate.”

In denying Hall’s motion, Horowitz said that based on the evidence it is “not inconceivable, outrageous or unbelievable” that the jury was able to conclude its deliberations in two hours.

Horowitz, who set bail at $1 million pending an appeal, also ordered the county treasurer-tax collector to investigate whether Greenup, a former building contractor who once owned three companies, is entitled to free legal services.

Although Greenup declared himself indigent, with monthly income of only $346, a probation report filed with the court showed that at the time of his arrest in 1984, he owned property worth about $1 million. The report also cites a 1985 tax return showing income of $109,509.

Hall, however, said his office had conducted a “substantial investigation” before accepting Greenup as a client and had found him to be indigent.