Teacher Invited Class to Make Football Bets, Students Claim

A student at a Sun Valley high school testified Tuesday that his English teacher asked a classroom of students if they were interested in betting on a football game.

Regulo Carlos Monarque, 18, testified in San Fernando Municipal Court that in October, 1988, Charles Hammond “asked the whole class if they were interested in betting.”

He was one of two students and two teachers at John H. Francis Polytechnic High School who testified at a preliminary hearing for Hammond, who is accused of running a bookie operation in his school classroom.

Monarque said he did not place any bets with the teacher and remembered only one student approaching Hammond about the gambling invitation after class.

Records Found

Hammond, 54, was arrested Jan. 6 at the school after a student told school officials that Hammond was taking bets. Vice officers said they found bookmaking records in his possession. In his Van Nuys apartment they found records of bets on horse racing, basketball and football events, officers said.

Hammond, who is free on $500 bail, is charged with eight counts of bookmaking and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Another student, Mark Lindstrom, testified Tuesday that in September, 1988, Hammond “asked me if I wanted to place a bet with him, and he told me how to go about doing it.” Lindstrom, 19, said that the teacher then showed him some “football cards.”

Police described the cards as 3-by-8-inch paper slips containing information about professional and college football games which are used by bookmakers.

Lindstrom testified that he placed a $2 bet on three football games and lost.

George Milton, one of two teachers who testified that they placed bets with Hammond, said he bet $10 on a horse race at Hollywood Park and collected $142 in winnings.

Milton testified that he placed bets with Hammond “three or four times.” However, he said that when Hammond paid him off with a personal check “I never bet again.”

“I thought he was going to pass my bet on to a bookie,” Milton testified. “I didn’t want to be betting with a teacher.”

Teacher Diane Morton testified that she won a $100 bet on the 1988 Super Bowl game, and Hammond paid with a personal check.

Detective Mike Gray, a North Hollywood Division vice officer, testified that although Hammond’s operation was small, it was run on “a professional level.” Gray said police do not know how much profit, if any, Hammond made or if other bookmakers were involved.

Hammond’s attorney, Donald Wager, said outside the courtroom that his client “is not a bookmaker, but just a person making bets with friends.”

School district officials said Hammond has been transferred to a non-teaching position pending a verdict. If found guilty of gambling with students or on school grounds he would be subject to discipline or dismissal.