Security Chief at High School Has Drug Record : Hawthorne: District officials say they perform background checks, but won’t say if they knew of his burglary conviction and later cocaine arrest.

The head of security at Hawthorne High School--accused by co-workers of encouraging student walkouts last month--was charged two years ago with cocaine possession and was previously convicted of burglary, court records show.

Jerome Brown’s criminal record, which begins with a 1976 burglary, grew last month when he was briefly jailed by Hawthorne police for failing to appear in court four times since 1984 on traffic citations. He has not held a valid driver’s license since 1979.

Brown, 32, spent three hours in the Hawthorne jail before Hawthorne High School Associate Principal Paul Priesz posted $1,227 bail.

A few hours later, Centinela Valley Union High School District trustees placed Brown on indefinite paid suspension.

Spokesman Dan Finnegan said the district will not comment on Brown or his status until it completes an investigation of his run-ins with the law, both past and present.

Brown could not be reached for comment.

Brown was arrested in May, 1988, for possession of crack cocaine. Court records show that he entered a court-supervised drug counseling program in September, 1988, rather than fight the charges. He had just been promoted from teacher’s aide to security chief at the high school.

Brown’s probation officer agreed to the drug counseling but wrote the court that his “involvement with cocaine is all the more aggravated since the defendant is an employee of a local high school and in constant contact with students.”

The cocaine possession charge was dismissed three months ago in Torrance Superior Court after Brown completed the drug program.

Centinela Valley school officials said they typically fingerprint job applicants and perform background checks, but they declined to say if they were aware of Brown’s burglary conviction when they hired him in 1984 or if they later learned of the cocaine arrest.

Chief of the high school’s 12-member security force, Brown has been under fire since March 5 and 6, when hundreds of students walked off campus to protest alleged racism by some teachers and school board members.

Several members of the security staff wrote the school board March 7 charging that Brown encouraged the walkouts. The security officers also complained to the board that Brown had asked them to spy on staff members, including teachers.

Other members of the security staff have come to Brown’s defense, saying he prevented the student demonstrations from getting out of hand.

Brown’s arrest last month was precipitated by an article that day in the Daily Breeze, which reported that arrest warrants had been issued for him on four occasions for failing to appear in court on traffic citations.

Hawthorne Police Capt. Richard Prentice said he read the newspaper account and called Hawthorne High School Principal Kenneth Crowe, asking that Brown turn himself in at the police station.

“You don’t want a radio car out there at the high school handcuffing the head of security and bringing him to the police station,” said Hawthorne Police Capt. Dave Barnes. “Imagine what the students would think about that.”

Crowe drove Brown to the station at 2 p.m.

Brown was bailed out three hours later and ordered to report to court to answer the traffic citations: two for driving without a license, one with driving with a minor not wearing a seat belt and one for an unspecified offense. The citations were issued in 1984, 1986, 1987 and 1988 in the South Bay and Los Angeles.

Brown’s license expired in 1979, and his driving privilege was officially suspended last year for his repeated failure to respond to traffic citations, a Department of Motor Vehicles official said.

Brown could be fined and jailed for the citations and failure to appear in court, police said.

He was arrested on the cocaine charge during a routine traffic stop by sheriff’s deputies from the Lennox station. Their report said that when they pulled Brown over, he attempted to dump a foil-wrapped chunk of rock cocaine, court papers say.

Brown denied that he was a cocaine user and said deputies falsified their report, according to a probation report. He said several young men had approached his car and must have thrown the cocaine inside as he was driving a high school student home, the probation report says.

Deputy Probation Officer Wayne Carter recommended Brown for drug counseling despite his being “a marginally suitable candidate” for the program, saying it might help Brown address his “abuse of cocaine.” The report quotes Brown as saying he had not used cocaine in 12 years.

Carter described Brown in the report as “a very glib, arrogant individual who has much difficulty in accepting responsibility for his criminal behavior.”

The probation report does not say if Hawthorne High officials were notified about Brown’s cocaine arrest. A Probation Department spokeswoman declined to comment about it.

Torrance Superior Court Judge Cecil J. Mills dismissed the possession charge on Dec. 22, 1989, after Brown completed the counseling program.

Before joining the district, Brown had been arrested three times on felony charges and convicted once.

He served 45 days in county jail in 1977 for residential burglary, when he was 19, and was placed on three years probation. The conviction was dismissed after Brown successfully completed probation, court records show.

Probation Department spokeswoman Carol Koelle said job applicants should report felony convictions even if they are later dismissed after probation.

Brown was acquitted in 1978 of a purse-snatching charge. He told his probation officer that two thieves dropped a woman’s purse and that he was arrested when he picked it up and returned it to the victim, the probation report says.