VAN NUYS : Teacher Among 6 Indicted in Fatal Beating

A popular North Hollywood teacher and five other men have been indicted on charges they avenged a traffic accident by beating to death a suspected drunk driver.

“I plead not guilty,” said Denneth Thaddeus Jackson, a social studies teacher at Madison Middle School, as the indictment charging him with murder, attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon was unsealed in Van Nuys Superior Court.

“He says he’s not guilty and I believe him,” defense attorney Jay Jaffe said.

Julio Aguilar, 23, was killed about 2:30 a.m. on Nov. 12, during a fracas outside a party at Jackson’s apartment in the 7100 block of Amigo Avenue in Reseda. Two hours earlier, Aguilar--allegedly intoxicated--had plowed into a parked pickup truck that belonged to one of the party-goers, according to police. Those in attendance called the police and Aguilar was arrested.

The fatal confrontation occurred when Aguilar’s brother, Jose, 21, drove him by the accident scene to check the truck’s damage after Aguilar was bailed out of jail.

Party-goers, some of them gang members, pulled the Aguilar brothers from the car and pummelled them with lumber, sticks, fists and feet, police said.

Jackson, who until his arrest was a revered role model for his students, is currently on unpaid leave from his teaching job.

Jackson and the others had been scheduled for a preliminary hearing today , but the hearing was superseded by the indictment, handed down Monday by a grand jury.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Franco Baratta said the grand jury indictment will avert a protracted preliminary hearing by moving the case directly to Superior Court for trial.

Named in the indictment were Jackson, 26; Marvin Lewis Foster, 22; Richard Lee Baker, 20; Oswaldo Ramos Perez, 19, and William Ronald Davis, 18, all of Reseda, and Jose Luis Macias, 21, of North Hills.

Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Darlene E. Schemp ordered the defendants to return to court March 10 for further hearings.