HARVARD-WESTLAKE SUED OVER THREATS.

Byline: Rachel Uranga Staff Writer

A Hollywood producer and his wife sued one of the city's most exclusive private schools on Monday, alleging a group of students led by football team members used school computers to post death threats against their 15-year-old son.

``Ali'' executive producer Lee Caplin and his wife, Gita, claim nine Harvard-Westlake students posted hate messages on the guest list portion of their son's Web site, devoted to promoting the high school junior's musical career.

One of the statements posted between Sept. 13 and Oct. 7 last year read: ``I am going to pound your head with an ice pick,'' and another stated, ``Faggot, I am going to kill you.''

School officials said the family immediately shut down the Web site and reported the threats to police.

Detective Kyle Tolliver, with the Los Angeles Police Department's Hate Crimes Unit, said the district attorney declined to file charges against the minors after police found the teenagers had modeled the threats from a movie and concluded they did not intend to harm the boy.

The school's headmaster, Tom Hudnut, said the teens confessed to posting the messages after being confronted by school officials.

``It was very bad judgment, but the fact that they self-identified, the fact they were remorseful and the fact that they apologized suggest to me they realized the errors of their way and they regretted it enormously,'' he said.

None of the students was suspended, but school officials disciplined them, said Hudnut, who declined to elaborate on the punishment.

Within a month of the postings, the Caplins enrolled their son in a Northern California school. The suit alleges that on Nov. 10, the Harvard- Westlake student newspaper, the Chronicle, published a story naming the minor and his whereabouts with the approval of the faculty supervisor.

The supervisor, Kathleen Neumeyer, could not be reached for comment, but Hudnut said he stands behind the newspaper's decision to publish the student's location.

``I am sure she felt she was acting within the bounds of professional propriety,'' he said.

The school gained infamy when it was attended by a group of sons of wealthy Southern California families who engaged in high-risk investments and turned to murder to recover their losses, crimes for which they were later convicted.

Their story inspired the 1987 film, ``Billionaire Boys Club,'' in which Judd Nelson played the club's ringleader, Joe Hunt, who is now serving a life sentence.

Rachel Uranga, [phone]

rachel.uranga(at)dailynews.com