Gram of Cocaine Found in Teacher’s House

Ventura County sheriff’s deputies seized a small amount of cocaine from the home of a Newbury Park High School teacher who was charged this week with being under the drug’s influence, Lt. Richard Diaz said Friday.

One gram or less was found, an amount suggesting that it was for personal use, not distribution, he said.

The teacher, Larry Jerome Johnson, 48, of Moorpark, was arrested Wednesday at school after Principal Paris Earls phoned the Sheriff’s Department to report he was behaving erratically. Johnson, who has taught business and math at the high school for 21 years, has been placed on leave with pay until he is formally arraigned in Ventura Municipal Court.

Johnson told The Times that he had cocaine in his system when arrested, but said he had used the drug off campus. He complained about the condition in which drug-searching sheriff’s deputies left his three-bedroom house, and said he was missing $500 in cash and some jewelry.

Diaz said he did not participate in the search and could not respond to Johnson’s allegations specifically. Speaking in general terms about the wreckage, Diaz said: “When we do searches, we don’t usually refold their underwear and put them back in their drawers.”

Diaz said Johnson’s arrest appeared to be an isolated incident and not part of a larger investigation.