THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 6, 1995 TAG: 9510060490
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
A grand jury on Thursday returned 24 indictments against former Wilson High School track coach John W. Crute on charges of secretly making videotapes of schoolgirls as they undressed in locker rooms.
Seventeen of the indictments include felony counts of production of sexually explicit material of minors. The indictments also include 39 misdemeanor charges of unlawful filming of a minor.
Meanwhile, one of the 24 girls named in the charges has filed a lawsuit against Crute and two school officials, Richard Trumble, superintendent of the Portsmouth Public Schools, and David Willett, athletic director at Wilson High School.
Crute, 45, allegedly videotaped the girls through a hole in the wall of a storage room adjacent to a locker room. Police say Crute also taped a girl in another locker room at the school, using a similar method.
The videotaping went on for several years, but the Portsmouth commonwealth's attorney's office has not revealed when it began. A news conference is scheduled for next week.
Crute was arrested after a video camera was found on the last weekend of July by a Police Department school liaison officer. The camera contained a tape of a 15-year-old Wilson female student.
On July 31, police raided Crute's home and confiscated more than 300 videotapes and an assortment of video equipment and other items. Crute turned himself in the next day and was charged with a felony and a misdemeanor for making sexually explicit videotapes of a minor. Police later discovered 57 more videotapes in a storage room at Wilson. Investigators alleged they were made by Crute.
Crute's preliminary hearing on the charges is set for Oct. 24.
The civil suit, filed Sept. 27, asks for damages of $3 million: $2 million from Crute; $500,000 from Trumble; and $500,000 from Willett.
The plaintiff in the civil action allegedly was asked by Crute to meet him at Wilson in October 1993 for the purpose of photographing her while she modeled uniforms for a school poster. Crute allegedly made secret videotapes of the girl while she was putting the uniforms on in the locker room.
The lawsuit claims that Trumble and Willett should have examined the schools and discovered the camera and the hole through which the videotapes were made. The lawsuit also claims the two men failed to properly supervise Crute. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
John W. Crute faces 16 felony charges
and 39 misdemeanor charges.
KEYWORDS: INDICTMENT by CNB