THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 11, 1995 TAG: 9510110581
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
Commonwealth's Attorney Martin Bullock and police officers displayed more than 400 videotapes Tuesday that were confiscated from former Wilson High School track coach John W. Crute's home July 31 and a storeroom at the school in late August.
Crute is accused of spending some of his weekends and after-school hours during the past four years secretly videotaping at least 27 schoolgirls - some as young as 13 - while they undressed in school locker rooms.
That's the foundation for 44 criminal charges filed against the 45-year-old Crute, who faces a Dec. 20 trial in Circuit Court. If convicted of all charges, Crute could receive up to 120 years in prison.
Bullock announced the charges Tuesday afternoon during a news conference in front of Portsmouth's Circuit Court building.
Bullock said he expects Crute to turn himself in today. Bullock asked for a $120,000 bond, but Circuit Judge Von L. Piersall Jr. set it at $25,000.
During their review of the evidence, authorities viewed tapes of 27 girls but were able to identify only 24, Bullock said. Five of the 24 girls were over 18 at the time of the filming. The rest were juveniles.
Bullock said the 24 identified victims range in age from 14 to 22. Seven of the girls are still students at schools in Hampton Roads, he said.
The tapes date to 1991, according to Helivi L. Holland, assistant commonwealth's attorney in Portsmouth. None of the taping was done during school hours. Instead, Crute videotaped girls after school and on weekends, Holland said.
Police believe that Crute photographed the girls through a hole in a storage room wall adjacent to a locker room. Another locker room was also videotaped in a similar fashion, authorities have said.
Nineteen of the indictments include felony counts of production of sexually explicit material of minors. The indictments also include 24 misdemeanor charges of unlawful filming of a minor and one other misdemeanor charge.
A preliminary hearing on the case scheduled for Oct. 24 was canceled when Bullock's office decided to seek the grand jury indictment.
Not all of the tapes confiscated from Crute's home and from Wilson contain footage of the undressed female students, Bullock said. Some are of pep rallies, track meets and other school functions.
``The amount of criminal activity on the tapes is really rather small,'' Bullock said.
A Portsmouth police liaison officer working at Wilson on the last weekend of July uncovered the videotaping scheme when he found, in a storage room, a video camera containing a tape of a 15-year-old female student. On the Monday after that discovery, police raided the home that Crute shares with his parents on Sussex Drive. They found more than 300 videotapes and an assortment of video recorders and cameras.
Crute turned himself in on Aug. 1 and was charged with a felony and a misdemeanor. He was suspended from his job at Wilson pending resolution of the criminal prosecution.
On Sept. 27 one of the girls whom Crute allegedly videotaped filed a lawsuit that names Crute, Portsmouth schools Superintendent Richard Trumble and Wilson Athletic Director David Willett. The suit asks for $3 million in damages. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
GARY C. KNAPP
On Tuesday, Martin Bullock, commonwealth's attorney for Portsmouth,
inspects several of more than 400 videotapes. The tapes were
confiscated from suspended Wilson High School track coach John W.
Crute's home July 31 and a storeroom at the school in late August.
KEYWORDS: ARREST VIDEOTAPES by CNB