Barreto Denies Knowing Tapes Were Illegal

Oxnard school Trustee Mary Barreto told the Ventura County Grand Jury that she had no idea that tapes of another board member’s phone calls left on her doorstep were illegally recorded, transcripts released Tuesday show.

But she admitted lying to investigators that she had the tapes, the grand jury transcripts show. And although prosecutors lacked evidence to link her to the illegal taping, Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Schwartz told the grand jury that it may return to seek her indictment if additional evidence comes to light.

With school administrator Pedro R. Placencia set to stand trial today on charges of making the illegal tapes, the 279-page document released Tuesday provides the most detailed look yet at the corruption case that has rocked the Oxnard Elementary School District.

The grand jury indicted Placencia last month, shortly after the secret September proceeding detailed in the transcripts, on six felony counts of illegally recording the phone calls of Trustee Jim Suter.

Placencia, who headed the district’s migrant education program, has pleaded not guilty.

Two of those tape-recorded conversations were left on Barreto’s doorstep, linking her to the alleged crimes.

But Barreto told the grand jury that when she discovered the tapes, she had no idea that they may have been illegally recorded.

“I didn’t really know if there were any legal implications,” she testified. “I had no knowledge. My concern was what was happening to us on the board and [in] the community.”

Barreto said she confronted Placencia two or three days after finding the first of the two tapes because his voice was on the recordings.

“He said that it was just information, that he had left the tape because he wanted me to know what was going on in the community,” she said.

What was going on in the community, Barreto said, was that Suter was trying to whip up support for a controversial issue that had divided the school board along political and racial lines.

That issue was the renaming of the district’s newest school after former Supt. Norman R. Brekke.

According to the transcripts, Suter and Supt. Bernard Korenstein briefly discussed that issue during one of the taped conversations. Another conversation allegedly concerned Korenstein’s personnel evaluation.

Barreto said that when she heard the tapes, she became immediately concerned and confronted Korenstein.

“I felt Mr. Suter was giving information out that was personal and confidential as related to the superintendent’s evaluation and that my concern was that the information would get to the teachers and to the community and that, again, the integrity of the board was being jeopardized,” she said.

Barreto also said she contacted the district’s former attorney about the tapes, but did not notify authorities.

When first confronted by a district attorney investigator on the matter, Barreto denied having the tapes in her possession, which was a lie.

“I was scared,” she told the grand jury. In her final words to the panel, Barreto said she never intended to do any harm.

“I never did accept these tapes with any malice,” she said. “My concern was always for the community, for the board, for integrity.”

For three days in late September, the grand jury convened to investigate possible criminal activity on the part of Barreto and Placencia, according to the transcripts of those proceedings.

A dozen witnesses testified, including Barreto, Korenstein, Suter and Trustee Arthur Lopez. Placencia, his wife and their 26-year-old son were also called before the panel but refused to testify on the grounds that their statements might be self-incriminating.

In a separate hearing in Superior Court, prosecutors asked a judge to compel Josephine Placencia and her son, Peter Placencia III, to testify.

Presiding Judge Robert Bradley said the wife could not be forced to testify against her husband, but the son was ordered to answer questions before the grand jury.

The younger Placencia said he frequently let his parents borrow a scanner, which authorities believe was used to listen in on Suter’s cordless telephone calls. Prosecutors say Placencia recorded those calls.

In his final statements to the grand jury, Schwartz said the testimony paints an intricate picture of a district at odds politically. And he told the grand jury that one of the most compelling questions in the case may never be answered.

“One question that may come to mind is why did they do this?” he said. “It sounds like a very complex political situation--that Oxnard school board.

“I don’t know if you’ll really understand what everybody’s political alignments are,” he said. “I kind of get the feeling they change from week to week and that the participants themselves are not aware of who is on whose side and who is doing what to whom.”