Teacher Pleads Not Guilty to Cocaine Charges

A Newbury Park High School teacher who has admitted using cocaine was arraigned in Ventura Municipal Court Wednesday on charges of possessing the drug in his home and being under its influence when he was arrested on campus Jan. 31.

Larry Jerome Johnson, 48, pleaded not guilty before Judge Thomas Hutchins. Since his arrest, he has been on a paid leave from the high school, where he has taught business and math for 21 years.

Now that charges have been filed by the Ventura County district attorney’s office, however, he will be suspended without pay until his case is resolved, an official with the Conejo Valley Unified School District said. The official said Johnson could continue to draw his salary if he posts a bond with the school district.

The teacher faces a maximum three years in state prison if convicted of two counts of drug possession, a felony, according to Deputy Ventura County Dist. Atty. Matthew Hardy. Hardy said that during a search of Johnson’s Moorpark house, a quarter-gram of cocaine was found in a bathroom and another quarter-gram in the living-room area.

If convicted of being under the drug’s influence, a misdemeanor, Johnson faces a maximum one year term in the Ventura County Jail, Hardy said.

Johnson’s attorney, Jay Johnson of Ventura, could not be reached

for comment Wednesday.

Because he has no record of drug convictions, Johnson may be eligible for a two-year rehabilitation program which, if successfully completed, would allow the charges to be dismissed, Hardy said.

But the prosecutor said his office will oppose that alternative because Johnson has admitted in news articles that he used cocaine and had the drug in his system when he was arrested, although he said he used it off campus. Hardy also said evidence seized at Johnson’s house and information from informants indicate he may have been involved in either selling or providing narcotics to others, although Hardy said prosecutors do not have enough evidence to charge Johnson with those crimes.