Teacher to Be Charged in Fatal Beating Over Crash : Crime: Denneth Jackson helped a group of his party guests kill a man in retaliation for a car accident, police say.

A junior high school teacher who helped a group of gang members pull a man from a car and beat him to death with fists, sticks and pool cues in vengeance for a traffic accident was being held Monday on suspicion of murder, Los Angeles police said.

The dead man’s brother was critically injured in the attack.

Denneth Thaddeus Jackson, 26, a social studies teacher at Madison Middle School in North Hollywood since September, was being held in lieu of $1 million bail and will be arraigned on murder charges today, police said.

Jackson was placed on unpaid leave by the Los Angeles Unified School District, standard policy in regard to employees charged with felonies, said school district spokesman Bill Rivera.

“We have a pretty good idea he was actively involved” in the beatings, said Detective Joel Price of the Los Angeles Police Department.

“I’m shocked,” said Sol Bialeck, the school’s assistant principal. “I knew he wasn’t here today, but I didn’t know why.”

Two juveniles allegedly involved in the beatings have been released to their parents pending formal charges, while seven arrested adults, ranging in age from 18 to 22, will either be arraigned or released today, said LAPD Detective Rick Swanston.

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The bizarre incident started early Saturday while Jackson was hosting a party in his apartment at 7134 Amigo Ave. in Reseda, investigators said.

Party-goers, including juveniles, drank alcohol and smoked marijuana, police said. Also present were several friends of Jackson’s who are members of a local gang, although Jackson himself is not a gang member, officers said.

About 12:30 a.m., the partyers heard a crash in the street. Several rushed out to find that a pickup truck belonging to one of them had been struck by a car driven by Julio Aguilar, 23, who lived in the neighborhood but did not know the gang members, authorities said.

After the accident, investigators said Aguilar, who was intoxicated, wanted to make a deal with the truck’s owner to avoid arrest, but other party-goers called police.

“He was crying,” Price said. “He just wanted to pay for it and go home, but they didn’t want to let him because he didn’t have any insurance, and they didn’t know him. And in the beginning, these guys did the right thing by calling police.”

But a neighbor, who declined to be identified, said Aguilar appeared to be trying to flee and fought with the party-goers, who restrained Aguilar until officers arrived and arrested him on suspicion of drunk driving.

About 2:30 a.m., Aguilar’s brother Jose, 21, and 29-year-old uncle Tony Orellana bailed him out of jail, and the three--apparently on their way home--drove past the scene of the accident to look at the damage to the truck, Price said.

“They stopped in the street and were looking at the car, and I think at that point the whole thing just deteriorated, with people shouting at each other and making threats,” Price said.

Then the party-goers dragged the brothers out of the car, leaving Orellana in the back seat, and began beating them, Price said.

“They had pieces of lumber and pool cues, and they also beat them with fists and kicked them,” Price said.

Meanwhile, Orellana climbed into the front seat of the car and drove home. Jose Aguilar also managed to escape and met Orellana at their house briefly before returning to try to rescue his brother, police said.

Instead, 10 male party-goers, including Jackson, continued beating Julio Aguilar and began striking Jose Aguilar before Jose was able to escape a second time, Price said. Jose was in serious condition at Northridge Hospital Medical Center on Monday, a hospital spokeswoman said.

When police arrived, they arrested six people apparently trying to flee in a car, and four others in Jackson’s apartment, police said.

The adults arrested with Jackson were identified as: William Ronald Davis, an 18-year-old pool cleaner from Reseda; James John Martinez, a 19-year-old laborer from Van Nuys; Richard Lee Baker, a 20-year-old construction worker from Reseda; Marvin Lewis Foster Jr., a 22-year-old construction worker from Reseda; Joe Luis Macias, a 21-year-old construction worker from North Hills; Oswaldo Ramos Perez, 19, a Reseda stock clerk; and Brian Hernandez, an unemployed 19-year-old from Van Nuys.

Jackson had been a playground supervisor for the school district since 1990 and recently obtained a teaching credential, Rivera said.

Although he was new to teaching this semester, he impressed other teachers with the seemingly effortless way he won the respect of his students, said Bialeck, the assistant principal.

“The kids like him very much,” Bialeck said. “He relates very well to the kids, is very in tune with them.”

During the recent anti-Proposition 187 demonstrations at the school, Bialeck said Jackson told the children to act responsibly.

“He was very strong and very reasonable and they listened to him,” Bialeck said.

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At the same apartment complex in 1992, a special weapons and tactics team fatally shot a heavily armed man who was holding his 3-year-old daughter hostage.

On Monday, a resident said that in addition to the hostage situation two years ago and Saturday’s beating death, there have been pipe bombs, automatic weapons fire and several hit-and-run accidents in the tiny area since she moved in.

“This ain’t no nice neighborhood,” she said. “But you’ve got to live somewhere.”