Educator to Face New Sex Charges
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A former Christian middle school principal accused of molesting a 13-year-old female student this summer was arrested Tuesday at the Ventura County Courthouse on suspicion of molesting two other girls in Los Angeles County in 2000 and 2001.
Jonathan Andreas, 36, who appeared in Ventura County Superior Court for a scheduled arraignment, was led away in handcuffs on an arrest warrant filed Friday in Los Angeles County.
The new complaint alleges that Andreas, who taught in Los Angeles before joining Oaks Christian School in Westlake Village two years ago, molested the girls from Jan. 1, 2000, to June 30, 2001. The complaint did not indicate whether the girls, both under age 14, were his students.
The Los Angeles complaint charges Andreas with eight felony counts of lewd conduct with a child and two misdemeanor counts of child molestation, according to Jane Robison, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. Bail was set at $1 million.
Andreas will be transferred to Los Angeles County, where he will be arraigned Thursday on the new charges, his attorney, Robert Schwartz, said.
In the Ventura County case, Andreas is accused of molesting a Thousand Oaks girl whose family he had befriended. On Tuesday, Ventura County Deputy Dist. Atty. Douglas Ridley added one count of possessing child pornography to Andreas’ 15 felony counts of child molestation.
Ridley also proposed adding more sentencing penalties to the complaint, which means Andreas could face 52 years to life in prison if convicted on all counts.
His arraignment in Ventura County was postponed, for the second time, and is now set for Aug. 22.
Because of the new allegations in the Los Angeles warrant, Ridley also asked that Andreas’ bail be increased to $1 million. Andreas was released on $250,000 bail July 25 after Ventura County Superior Court Judge Kevin J. McGee reduced the amount from $500,000. McGee agreed to review Andreas’ bail amount on Aug. 13.
“I think [Judge] McGee made a decision based upon the assumption that there was only one victim,” Ridley said. “But now there’s been a substantial change.”
Andreas allegedly wrote love letters to the Thousand Oaks girl and told her parents he wanted to marry her, according to a search warrant issued by the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department. Investigators confiscated love letters, computer equipment and a Bible from Andreas’ Thousand Oaks apartment, authorities said.
According to the warrant, Andreas began tutoring the girl in May and developed a friendship with the family. The alleged incidents occurred from June 21 to July 1 while Andreas was on a trip with the teen’s family, at the girl’s home, and at Andreas’ apartment.
While on the trip, the warrant states, Andreas wrote a note to the girl on his laptop computer. After learning of the alleged sexual encounters, the girl’s father confronted Andreas, who replied that he loved the teenager and wanted to marry her, according to the document.
Andreas was fired from Oaks Christian after his July 20 arrest.
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