
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, October 7, 1995                   TAG: 9510090051
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                                LENGTH: Short

LOCKER ROOM VIDEOS LEAD TO ARREST

A grand jury has indicted a former high school track coach on charges of secretly making videotapes of students changing clothes in the girls' locker rooms.

Seventeen of the 24 indictments handed up Thursday against John W. Crute include felony counts of production of sexually explicit material of minors. The Portsmouth Circuit Court indictments also include 39 misdemeanor charges of unlawful filming of a minor at Wilson High School.

Crute, 45, allegedly videotaped the girls over several years through a hole in the wall of a storage room adjacent to a locker room. He was arrested after police discovered the video camera.

One of the 24 girls named in the charges filed a lawsuit Sept. 27 against Crute and two school officials. It seeks $2 million in damages from Crute, $500,000 from Portsmouth school Superintendent Richard Trumble, and $500,000 from Wilson Athletic Director David Willett.

The lawsuit claims that Trumble and Willett should have examined the school 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.

- Associated Press

by CNB