Ex-Teacher Gets 10 Years

A former Camarillo High School teacher and coach who engaged in sex acts with several of his male students was sentenced to 10 years in state prison Monday after emotional pleas for justice by the teenagers and their families.

Chad Wenzlick Pridgen, 31, pleaded guilty in November to 20 felony and misdemeanor counts involving 11 teenage boys, most of whom were students at Camarillo High when Pridgen taught upper-level science and coached boys’ tennis and soccer there. The incidents took place from 1999-2001.

A few of those former students were in court with their parents Monday. One of them spoke to Ventura County Superior Court Judge Bruce Clark and urged the maximum 13-year sentence for Pridgen.

“My life has been flipped upside-down because of this man,” the teenager told the court. “The only justice I could have is life in prison, and that’s still not justice. He’s ruined me.”

Pridgen -- who pleaded guilty to half of the original charges against him -- spoke for the first time in his own defense, saying he was sorry for the crimes he committed but insisting that many of the charges had been exaggerated or made up altogether.

He argued that he should be sentenced to probation and no prison time.

“The things I did are bad enough,” Pridgen said. “But all the hype attached made it worse than it actually was.”

His attorney, Paul Takakjian, went a step further and accused one of the victims in the case, who was 17 at the time, of blackmailing Pridgen in order to maintain a sexual relationship with him. Takakjian told the court that the boy insisted that Pridgen “bring other boys in” or he would expose him and their relationship.

“This young man was a very skilled liar,” Takakjian said. “We feel the defendant was as much a victim of circumstance and lies and manipulation as he was a participant.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Douglas Ridley said in court that the boy did admit to lying to prosecutors about some aspects of his relationship with Pridgen. But the boy denied being involved with bringing other victims into the relationship, Ridley said.

Before issuing Pridgen’s sentence, Clark read from a probation report that said the blackmail story is “difficult to believe.”

“It is clear [Pridgen] fails to take responsibility for his poor choices and instead places blame on everyone but himself,” Clark said.

He went on to say that teachers are put on pedestals in communities.

“To grant Pridgen probation would send the wrong message to our community and our schools,” Clark said.

Ridley had argued for a 12-year prison term -- one year less than the maximum -- saying Pridgen showed no remorse for his crimes.

Outside court, Ridley called the sentence a “really good result” and told victims and their families that it was their bravery in coming forward that made the case. “I know it doesn’t do anything to erase what happened, but I hope you are feeling some vindication today,” he said.

The father of two victims said that while he was glad to see Pridgen put in prison, he still doesn’t feel closure.

“Any sentence cannot match the years of emotional scarring my boys and others have been through,” the father said. He also said he was angered by Pridgen’s attempt to blame the abuse on another teenager. “I didn’t buy it, and I’m glad the judge didn’t either,” he said.

Monday’s sentencing is not the end of Pridgen’s legal troubles. He is named in a lawsuit seeking millions of dollars in damages from the Oxnard Union High School District, where Pridgen was employed as a teacher and coach for six years before his arrest.

Before pleading guilty last fall, Pridgen faced 39 felony and misdemeanor counts, including charges that he gave minors alcohol, showed them pornographic videos, masturbated in front of them and engaged in oral sex with them during weekend and after-school parties in his Camarillo home.

He was arrested Feb. 5, 2002, after a Sheriff’s Department investigation prompted by the complaint of one student, now 18. The youth reported Pridgen’s behavior to authorities after an incident on Jan. 31, 2002, when he said Pridgen had the boy stay after class to discuss assignments he had missed due to an illness.

The student said Pridgen asked him to engage in oral sex with another teenage boy at the teacher’s house. Pridgen told the student he should do this because he “owed him big-time” for “not giving him a bad grade” during the semester, according to court documents.

Equipping the student with a concealed microphone and transmitter, authorities heard Pridgen admit he had watched pornographic videos with the boy and had bought him alcohol, according to court documents.

During the taped conversation, which was played in court Monday, Pridgen also alluded to the Jan. 31 incident and arranged for the student to meet him at his home the next day to receive oral sex.

“You know how I can intimidate people -- as a teacher,” Pridgen said on the tape. “You want people with a weak constitution.”