4 Youths Charged With Abduction in Magnet School Case

Four teenagers were charged with extortion and kidnapping Monday in a case involving students from Troy High School in Fullerton, a magnet school that draws Ivy League-bound scholars.

The case began last fall, authorities said, when a 17-year-old Troy student had a falling-out with a group of classmates who call themselves the “honor roll mafia.” One night, they took the student from his Diamond Bar home, demanded $451, threatened him with baseball bats and at one point placed a pistol barrel in his mouth, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Det. Marvin Washington said. They let him go after he agreed to get the money, Washington said.

But the next day at school, the victim went to some friends he believed were in an Asian gang and asked for their help, Washington said. They called the teenagers’ tormentors and told them to stop; afterward they demanded $500 from the beleaguered student for protecting him, Washington said.

The youth gave them what they though was a Rolex watch as payment, but when that turned out to be fake, the Asian gang members kidnapped him and the friend who gave him the watch, Washington said. The gang members threatened the two teenagers until they got $200 from a third student, he said.

On Thursday, police went to Troy, Diamond Bar High School and homes in Yorba Linda and Diamond Bar to arrest four teenagers. Two of the suspects are students at Troy, one at Diamond Bar High School and one at El Dorado High School.

Of the four students charged in a Pomona courtroom Monday, three are allegedly in an Asian gang and one is in the “honor roll mafia,” presumably named for the members’ academic standing, Washington said.

“I haven’t verified that by looking at report cards, but that’s what we understand,” Washington said.

Troy High is an academically competitive school that won the nation’s top science prize two years ago. With about 2,000 students in grades 9 through 12, Troy is a magnet school for technology and science. Principal Chuck Maruca said the school draws at least half its enrollment from outside the Fullerton Joint Union High School District. Students come from Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties and elsewhere in Orange County.

“You have to be pretty smart to go here,” Troy art teacher Mike Thomas said. “Obviously book smarts and social smarts aren’t always hooked together.”

Washington said the investigation may yield further arrests.

None of the suspects has a record, he said, and all come from seemingly stable homes.

“It’s very strange,” he said. “Why the kids do these things, we don’t know.”

Prosecutors want the teenagers tried as adults, and they face a hearing on that matter Friday, Deputy Dist. Atty. John Harrold said. If convicted, they could face up to life in prison on the kidnapping charge alone.

“I get the impression these kids have gotten away with stuff,” Washington said, “and they’re surprised it’s gotten this serious.”

Times staff writer Nick Anderson contributed to this story.