2 Boys Testify in Raker Molestation Case : Courts: Teacher at Hazeltine Avenue Elementary School faces 12 felony counts of lewd and lascivious conduct.

Two brothers, now 13 and 14, squirmed in the witness chair and mumbled into a microphone Tuesday as they testified to separate, but similar, accounts of molestation by a teacher and coach at Hazeltine Avenue Elementary School in Van Nuys.

Meanwhile, nine other boys, most of them wearing shorts and backward baseball caps, waited none-too-patiently outside court for their turn on the witness stand.

They will have their chance today to tell a judge what allegedly happened to them during numerous sleep-overs and swimming parties hosted by the teacher during a 2 1/2-year period that ended in March.

That was when one of the victims spoke to a playground supervisor, launching a probe that led to the arrest of the teacher and softball coach, Jeffrey Herbert Raker, 47.

All of the boys, who are now in junior high school, were brought to Van Nuys Municipal Court to testify at a preliminary hearing. After their testimony, a judge will determine if there is sufficient evidence to hold Raker for trial.

Raker, who is being held on $750,000 bail, faces 12 felony counts of lewd and lascivious conduct involving nine boys, all of them Latinos from poor homes. Four of the charges allege the more serious offense of continuous lewd and lascivious conduct.

Two of the 11 boys were not named as victims in the charges but will serve as corroborating witnesses to the molestations, police said.

Raker had run an orphanage in Guatemala for several years before returning to California, where he was hired by the Los Angeles Unified School District in 1992.

Both brothers testified Tuesday that Raker masturbated them as they sat on the teacher’s lap playing computer games.

The house parties usually involved swimming, the computer fondling sessions, watching videos and ordering pizza or barbecues, the boys said. But there were also trips to Dodger Stadium, Yosemite, San Diego and Disneyland. These necessitated sleep-overs during which, the boys testified, Raker would wake them up in the middle of the night by fondling them.

“I was sleeping,” said the older brother. “He came with his clothes on [into] the bed and just started kissing me.”

Using graphic, but childlike, terminology, the older brother also testified to engaging in mutual oral copulation with Raker. The teacher also asked the boy to sodomize him, the boy testified.

Under questioning by Deputy Dist. Atty. Rebecca Houseman, the older youth, now a ninth-grader, divided the molestations as occurring before or after the Northridge earthquake, when Raker moved from a damaged apartment in North Hollwood to his mother’s house in Studio City.

Responding later to a question from defense attorney Robert Berke, the youth said he last saw the date of the earthquake in the Los Angeles Times earlier this year. Before that, he recalled seeing the date on a television news show in January, 1995.

The boys’ accounts agreed in general but varied about the number of outings, the time and other details.

For example, one boy said he discussed the molestations with his brother, while the brother said neither of them ever spoke about it.

Municipal Judge Jessica Perrin Silvers blocked Berke from questioning the boys on whether they enjoyed or were upset about their contact with the teacher, ruling that is irrelevant to the crime.

“If this was something upsetting to the witness, he would have done something other than going to the house repeatedly,” Berke argued. “It’s relevant to show the probability of the events.”

Both prosecution and defense attorneys tried to close the preliminary hearing to the public, but Silvers denied their request.