CLASSMATES' CONVERSATION LED TO SUSPICION; TEEN SAYS SHE COMPARED NOTES ON LEWD CALLS.

Byline: Orith Goldberg Staff Writer

A 15-year-old Canyon High School student testified Wednesday that she connected obscene phone calls she received to her then-English teacher after speaking about those conversations with a classmate.

The 15-year-old, one of six students Patrick Roy Hughes is accused of calling and asking sexually explicit questions, said the conversation with her classmate occurred while Hughes stepped away from his ninth-grade English class. During the classmates' talk, the students learned that the calls they received were alike, with the caller asking inappropriate questions and making crude comments.

``It clicked,'' the student said. ``We all sit in the front row, we all had similar calls and similar questions.''

Hughes, who has worked at Canyon High School since September 1975, was put on administrative leave after he was charged April 27 with five misdemeanor counts of child molestation and five misdemeanor counts of making obscene or threatening phone calls.

He has pleaded not guilty.

The 15-year-old was the third student to take the stand since the trial began Tuesday in Newhall Municipal Court.

The teen from Canyon Country testified that she had been assigned to sit in the front row in Hughes' class and had heard Hughes comment on the appearances of former female students.

The student said she received as many as five calls from the person she thought to be Hughes. She recalled receiving the first three calls Feb. 3 from a person who identified himself as ``Kevin,'' the name of a friend of hers from school.

The conversations included topics such as school and friends, but the caller intermittently slipped in comments about the teen's appearance and invasive questions about her sex life.

When the teen became upset by the questions, the caller told her to take his comments as a compliment.

On Feb. 14, the teen received two more calls from someone with a similar voice. The teen noted that after she asked the caller questions, he would reply ``Oh, OK,'' a familiar phrase of Hughes', she said.

Under questioning from defense attorney Paul Powers, the teen acknowledged that before she prepared her statement for authorities, she had spoken with the classmate, who had suggested that the caller was Hughes. She did not think about Hughes as the possible caller prior to her conversations with the classmate, she said.

The teen also said the answers she received from the caller were not inconsistent with what she knew about her friend Kevin.

When questioned further by Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Rose Weiss, the teen said her classmate did not say or do anything to influence her testimony.

Another teen who took the stand Wednesday testified that Hughes said Feb. 23 that he would try to get the 14-year-old and her friend into his English class the next semester.

That day, the teen received two phone calls from a person who also identified himself as ``Kevin.'' Although the teen had her own phone line, the call was made on her parents' line, the number that was listed on her school records.

The teen observed that the caller's voice was deep, saying at one point that he sounded like her uncle.

During a call, the teen called her best friend, who joined the conversation on the three-way line. At one point, the teen's friend left the phone and when she returned, she said ``Hi, Patrick,'' the teen testified.

Shortly after that comment, the caller hung up, the teen said.

Hughes, who has taught mostly ninth- and 10th-grade English, will remain on unpaid administrative leave pending the outcome of the trial. Hughes had the option of posting bond to receive pay, but did not do so, said Mike von Buelow, assistant superintendent for the William S. Hart Union High School District.

Hughes also has taught speech and drama during his tenure at Canyon High School.