O.C. Teacher Accused of Shooting Ex-Lover, Another

A former “teacher of the year” at Sunny Hills High School was behind bars Friday, charged with shooting her former lover and another woman in what police called the violent end to a stormy, seven-year relationship.

Janet Ruth Greene, a 51-year-old physical education teacher at the Fullerton school whose colleagues had chosen her for the teaching honor in 1988, was charged with two counts of attempted murder in the Wednesday night fracas that may have left her ex-lover, 62-year-old Loretta Coller, paralyzed from the waist down.

“It’s just a very unfortunate situation,” said Gregory Bice, assistant superintendent at the Fullerton Union High School District. “There’s nothing that we know of at the district that could explain why this happened.”

Greene was being held at the Sybil Brand Institute for Women in Los Angeles. Bail was set at $300,000. Her arraignment, scheduled for Friday, was postponed until June 13 to give her lawyer more time to prepare her defense.

Glendora Police Sgt. Tim Pfeiffer said Greene had been distraught for months over her breakup with Coller last September, refusing to accept the fact that the relationship was over.

At about 7 p.m., after drinking heavily, Greene allegedly called the home that she and Coller had shared until last year, according to court records. The records indicate that Greene was intoxicated at the time of the incident. She asked Coller whether her current companion, Martha Pereida, 49, of Alhambra was there. Upon learning that she was, Greene then allegedly threatened to kill Pereida and Coller.

A little more than an hour later, Pfeiffer said, Greene drove to Coller’s home on East Canterbury Lane in Glendora and allegedly sneaked in through a sliding glass door. Undetected, she armed herself with the .38-caliber revolver that Coller kept in her bedroom, police said.

Her intention, Greene later told police, was to persuade Coller to resume their relationship and to discuss property the two still owned jointly, Pfeiffer said. But when she walked into the den and discovered Coller and Pereida sitting on bar stools, the three women began arguing and Greene fired a shot into the couch, Pfeiffer said.

Pereida then charged Greene and attempted to take the weapon away, Pfeiffer said. Three more shots went off, wounding both Coller and Pereida.

When police arrived, they found Greene attempting to administer first aid to Coller. She told police the gun had gone off accidentally.

Coller’s spinal cord was severed by one of the bullets, according to police. She was in serious condition Friday and her doctors have told police that she may be permanently paralyzed below the waist. Pereida, who was shot in the leg, was treated for her wound and released.

The news that one of their teachers had been charged with attempted murder came as a shock to students at Sunny Hills High School, where five students were arrested for the brutal slaying of Foothill High honor student Stuart A. Tay on Dec. 31, 1992. Three of the five students have been convicted or pleaded guilty to murder charges. Two others have yet to be tried.

“It makes you wonder who else is going to get killed,” one 16-year-old sophomore said Friday upon learning the news.

Students who took physical education and health courses from Greene, who taught at Sunny Hills since 1982, described her as a woman of few words.

“She’s not the kind of person to shoot someone. She pretty much kept to herself,” said a 16-year-old sophomore who took Greene’s physical education class last year.

Greene has taught in the district since 1969 and had no record of disciplinary problems, said Bice, the assistant superintendent.

Others however, described her as short-tempered and said they feared her.

“She’d get mad easily,” said another sophomore, also 16. “. . . I was afraid of her.” In Glendora, Coller’s neighbors along the quiet cul-de-sac of single-family homes near the Glendora Country Club also remembered Greene as reserved, describing Coller as more outgoing. During happier times, they said, the two took frequent camping trips together.

But some neighbors said the couple’s relationship was often stormy, especially after the breakup. Some said Greene, who is 5-2 tall and weighs 115 pounds, had lost perhaps 30 pounds in recent months.

“Janet moved in and out a couple of times,” said Harold Zink, Coller’s next-door neighbor. “She wanted to get back together, but Loretta didn’t want her back.”

Pending the outcome of her case, Greene has been placed on paid administrative leave from her $50,000-a-year job, according to officials at the Fullerton Union High School District.