Unrelated Charge for School Worker With Guns; Lawyer Alleges Vendetta

A school groundskeeper was charged Friday with one count of receiving stolen property, but prosecutors filed no charges related to a cache of guns found at his San Clemente home this week.

An attorney for Jerry Peacock contended that the 43-year-old man is a gun collector being targeted by Capistrano Unified School District officials who lost a $215,000 sexual harassment case that he and two co-workers filed in 1997.

Peacock’s attorney, Gary Pohlson, noted that school district officials tipped off police about the gun collection in retaliation.

“This is a vendetta, it is so clear,” Pohlson said. “Since the sexual harassment suit, the school district has made Peacock’s life difficult.”

Peacock comes from a family of gun enthusiasts and has built his collection over 35 years, Pohlson said. All of the weapons are legal, he said.

Making his first court appearance Friday in Orange County Superior Court’s South Justice Center in Laguna Niguel, Peacock pleaded not guilty to the stolen property charge, stemming from school equipment found at his home. His bail, which had been set at $1 million, was reduced to $25,000. Pohlson said he expected his client to post bail Friday night.

James A. Fleming, superintendent of Capistrano Unified, said district officials did alert Orange County sheriff’s deputies that Peacock kept weapons at his duplex in the 100 block of West Marquita in San Clemente.

“We said to police, ‘We want to let you know, this gentleman owns guns,’ ” Fleming said.

Peacock was arrested Wednesday after Orange County deputies searched his home and confiscated eight machine guns, dozens of military-style rifles, several World War II-vintage carbines and 50,000 rounds of ammunition in what they described as one of Orange County’s biggest weapons busts. Officers also found about $1,000 worth of rakes, ladders, power tools, tree trimmers and trash cans belonging to the school district.

Attorney Pohlson said Friday that Peacock does not own automatic weapons and that none of the guns stored in his two safes were stolen.

“Half the weapons are registered to someone else,” Pohlson said. “He was storing them for a lot of different people.”

As for the gardening equipment, Pohlson said, many of the items at Peacock’s home had belonged to the school district and had been thrown out.

But Sheriff’s Lt. Fred Lisanti said that only the military, some police officers and a select civilians can obtain licenses for some of the weapons that were seized. In addition, Lisanti said, some of the weapons had been modified, making them illegal.

“Our concern is with the number of weapons and ammunition,” Lisanti said. “To my mind, this does not look like a collection.”

The Orange County district attorney’s office is still reviewing the evidence to determine whether more charges will be filed, he said.

Attorney Michelle Reinglass, who represented Peacock in the lawsuit against the school district, said the case strained the district’s relationship with the three employees involved. Peacock and Octavio Gonzalez of San Juan Capistrano contended that a school district groundskeeper made unwanted sexual advances toward them on the job in 1994. A third plaintiff, Mickey Romero of San Clemente, stated that he was forced to work in a hostile environment.

Peacock has been employed with the school district since 1993 but has been on medical leave since April this year.

Fleming said Friday that district officials “don’t have the greatest fondness for Mr. Peacock. He knew how to use the system. The sexual harassment laws were written for women. To have a lawsuit over locker-room behavior kind of stuff--we admit [the incident] shouldn’t have happened.”

But the superintendent scoffed at the idea that the school district is seeking revenge.

“For anyone to suggest this is retaliation and that we set this up . . . is ridiculous,” Fleming said. “We found our property throughout the house.”