Educator Pleads Not Guilty in Sex Case

A former Westlake Village middle school principal pleaded not guilty Tuesday to eight felony counts of lewd conduct with a child, involving two Los Angeles County girls he allegedly molested.

Jonathan Andreas, 36, was denied a reduction of his $1-million bail by a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge, defense attorney Robert Schwartz said.

Andreas, recently fired from his post at Oaks Christian High School, also faces charges in Ventura County involving an alleged molestation this summer of a 13-year-old female student at Oaks Christian.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office refused to say whether the two girls Andreas is accused of molesting in 2000 and 2001 were students at Calvary Christian School in Pacific Palisades, where Andreas worked as a third-grade teacher from 1996 to 1998.

His next court appearance in Los Angeles was set for Sept. 4.

In Ventura County, Andreas faces 15 counts of lewd conduct with a minor stemming from acts that allegedly occurred in late June and early July with a Thousand Oaks girl whose family he had befriended.

He is scheduled to be arraigned on those charges and one misdemeanor count of possessing child pornography on Aug. 22.

If convicted, he could receive 52 years to life in prison in Ventura County and 15 years to life in prison in L.A. County, spokesmen for the prosecutors said.

Andreas wrote love letters to the Thousand Oaks girl and told her parents he wanted to marry the girl, according to information secured through 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.

Andreas began tutoring the girl in May and developed a friendship with her family. Authorities said the molestations occurred while Andreas was on a trip with the girl and her family, at the girl’s home, and at his apartment.

After learning of the alleged molestations, the girl’s father confronted Andreas, who said he loved the teenager and wanted to marry her, according to authorities.

Andreas was fired by Oaks Christian after his arrest July 20. He began working as the middle school principal in fall 2000, when the independent parochial school opened.

Andreas is scheduled to appear Friday in Ventura County Superior Court for a bail-review hearing.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Douglas Ridley has asked Judge Kevin J. McGee to increase bail from $250,000 to $1 million. Andreas’ case is the latest among recent sexual allegations by students against Ventura County educators.

Camarillo High School science teacher Chad Wenzlick Pridgen, 30, was charged earlier this year with 33 felony and misdemeanor counts of child molestation for allegedly trying to have sex with 11 teenage boys. Pridgen has been on unpaid leave since his Feb. 5 arrest and is free on $500,000 bail.

Andrew Paul Fonseca, 23, a former volunteer wrestling coach at Moorpark High School, pleaded guilty in July to having sex with a 14-year-old female student. He remains in jail pending a sentencing hearing Friday.

And former Newbury Park High School coach Jeffrey S. Magruder pleaded not guilty in March to five charges-- involving three girls at Thousand Oaks High.

He is free on $100,000 bail and is scheduled to appear in court Sept. 16 for a preliminary hearing.