School Employee Indicted in Taping of Phone Calls

A longtime Oxnard school district employee was indicted Monday by the Ventura County Grand Jury on suspicion of illegally tape-recording the phone calls of district Trustee Jim Suter.

Pedro R. Placencia, coordinator of the elementary district’s migrant education program, was arrested at his office Monday afternoon and booked into County Jail. He was released after posting bail Monday night.

The grand jury took no action against school board member Mary Barreto, who also had been a target of the initial investigation into the matter.

The six-count indictment against Placencia was handed down after the grand jury took the testimony of 12 witnesses over a two-day period last week, prosecutors said.

News of the probe into the illegal tape recordings first surfaced this summer after investigators with the district attorney’s office searched the homes of Placencia and Barreto.

Barreto, who testified before the grand jury last week, told authorities that tapes of the phone calls were anonymously left on her doorstep.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Schwartz said Monday that there was no evidence to support an indictment against Barreto.

“If we obtain further information later then we’ll reevaluate the case,” Schwartz said.

Barreto’s attorney, Tim Quinn, said the trustee was relieved that no indictment had been returned against her.

“We’re really, really happy,” Quinn said. “If there was any evidence of wrongdoing, they would have indicted her. They are basically making a statement that now they understand what happened. They agree that she did not have any role in any wrongdoing.”

The only knowledge Barreto had of the recordings came after someone anonymously left cassette tapes on two occasions at her Oxnard home, her attorney said.

The two tapes were recordings of personal calls and phone conversations between Suter and district employees, Quinn said.

Concerned that the taped discussions dealt with confidential board business, Barreto told a fellow trustee about the cassettes.

That trustee informed the district attorney’s office.

But why anyone would want to illegally eavesdrop or record Suter’s conversations remains a mystery, Schwartz said.

“It is unusual that someone would resort to eavesdropping particularly in this situation,” he said. “As far as the motivation, well, that is not entirely clear to me.”

The tape recordings were made during the month of June using a radio scanner that picked up Suter’s cordless telephone calls, officials said.

Suter said he was baffled by the whole experience.

“I have no idea,” Suter said. “I’ve been racking my mind about why someone would do that to me. I just don’t know. They asked me in the grand jury and I just didn’t have an answer.”

Along with recordings of conversations related to school district matters, the tapes also included Suter’s personal calls. One recording captured a call between Suter’s wife, Helen, and their daughter, who lives in Sacramento.

Suter, who was a teacher in the school district, said he has known Placencia for more than 20 years.

“I really don’t know why Pete would have done something like this,” Suter said.

Placencia was booked into the Ventura County Jail and his bail was set at $10,000.

If convicted, he faces a maximum of more than three years in prison and a fine of $10,000, officials said.

School board member Francisco Dominguez said Placencia would be placed on administrative leave, which is normal for an employee facing criminal charges.

“It taints the district by having something like this occur,” Dominguez said. “It certainly raises many questions. It is very disturbing.”

Placencia is scheduled to be arraigned this morning.