OXNARD : Teacher Won’t Face Retrial Over Conduct

An Oxnard High School teacher is free to return to the classroom after prosecutors decided Tuesday not to refile charges that he inappropriately touched three teen-age girls.

Two misdemeanor counts of child annoyance were dismissed against Fred D’Astoli, 54, of Agoura on Tuesday after a Ventura County Municipal Court jury acquitted him last week of one count and deadlocked on the other two.

“We did not feel we would receive a different result by retrying him,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Jennifer Nelson said.

“We have to prove that his conduct was motivated by an abnormal or unnatural sexual interest in the child victims,” Nelson said. “Most of the jurors thought his conduct was inappropriate, but they did not feel he had the intent required (for a guilty verdict).”

The superintendent of the Oxnard Union High School District said Tuesday that D’Astoli was “still employed” but declined to say whether D’Astoli would return in the fall to teach a fourth year of English.

“It’s a personnel issue and I can’t discuss it,” Supt. Bill Studt said.

Nelson said D’Astoli made lewd comments and inappropriately touched two 14-year-old girls and a 16-year-old girl.

“The jury did receive evidence on the issue of intent,” Nelson said.

Nelson said that another former student from Calabasas testified that six years ago, when she was 9, “there were several occasions where he had placed his hand under her skirt and rubbed her inner thigh.”

Defense attorney Richard P. Lasting said the case stemmed from a “misunderstanding on the part of some of his students.”

“I told him, ‘You better teach with your hands in your pockets,’ ” Lasting said outside court Tuesday. “Sometimes, he doesn’t keep his social distance.”