John Zeretzke | |
---|---|
Genres | World music |
Occupation(s) | Teacher, musician, composer |
Instrument(s) | Flute, violin |
Website | Official website |
John Edward Zeretzke is an American teacher, flute player, composer, and convicted sex offender. After conducting flute making workshops with school children for many years, he was accused of lewd conduct with children in 2017 and other sex charges in 2019. Many of the charges are related to his flutes, specifically that they were tainted with Zeretzke‘s semen. [1] [2] [3]
Zeretzke taught music to children and young adults for over 30 years through the Los Angeles Music Center. [4] [5] He also taught summer programs through the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Orange County. [6]
In 2009, Zeretzke founded and directed Flutes Across the World, a humanitarian and educational organization. [7] [8] [9] It is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization that registered in 2013. [10]
For the program, Zeretzke taught students to make flutes out of PVC piping, corks and hot glue. [2] [11] Each student decorated two to send to children in the least developed countries. [12] These flutes wound up in the Philippines, Central America and Haiti. [13]
Zeretze composed the soundtracks for:
Zeretzke was arrested in 2017 by Los Angeles County police and federal postal inspectors, who accused him of lewd conduct with children, coercing a girl to produce child pornography, attempting to entice another person to send him sexually explicit images, receiving child pornography over the internet, and traveling to the Philippines to engage in sex with minors. He pleaded not guilty to all charges and was held in the Orange County Jail. [1] [2] [3] [18] [19] The California state attorney general announced on July 8, 2020, that he was sentenced in Orange County Superior Court to 18 years in state prison after pleading guilty to six counts of committing lewd acts against five girls under 14 by tainting their flutes with his semen. [20] The acts were committed between January 1 and April 30, 2017. [21]
Southern California is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal region includes Greater Los Angeles and San Diego County. The region generally contains ten of California's 58 counties: Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Kern, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Imperial counties.
Ventura County is a county located in the southern part of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 843,843. The largest city is Oxnard, and the county seat is the city of Ventura.
Meiners Oaks is an unincorporated community lying west of the city of Ojai in Ventura County, California, United States. The population was 3,571 at the 2010 census. For statistical purposes, the United States Census Bureau has defined Meiners Oaks as a census-designated place (CDP).
Ojai is a city in Ventura County, California. Located in the Ojai Valley, it is northwest of Los Angeles and east of Santa Barbara. The valley is part of the east–west trending Western Transverse Ranges and is about 10 miles (16 km) long by 3 miles (5 km) wide and divided into a lower and an upper valley, each of similar size, surrounded by hills and mountains. The population was 7,637 at the 2020 census, up from 7,461 at the 2010 census.
Ventura, officially named San Buenaventura, is a city in and the county seat of Ventura County, California, United States. It is a coastal city located northwest of Los Angeles. The population was 110,763 at the 2020 census. Ventura is a popular tourist destination, owing to its historic landmarks, beaches, and resorts.
Los Padres National Forest is a United States national forest in southern and central California. Administered by the United States Forest Service, Los Padres includes most of the mountainous land along the California coast from Ventura to Monterey, extending inland. Elevations range from sea level to 8,847 feet (2,697 m).
The South Coast Metro is a district in Orange County, California within the cities of Santa Ana and Costa Mesa. The area is a dense mix of residential, office, and retail developments that spreads out from the South Coast Plaza mall. It forms part of the South Coast Plaza–John Wayne Airport edge city, a concentration of business, shopping, and entertainment outside a traditional central business district. The edge city's area is defined to include John Wayne Airport, the Irvine Business Complex (IBC), The District and The Market Place shopping centers, and the University of California, Irvine campus. This larger definition extends into Newport Beach, Irvine, and Tustin.
The Segerstrom Center for the Arts is a performing arts complex in Costa Mesa, California, United States, which opened in 1986. Designed by Charles Lawrence, the Center's Segerstrom Hall and Judy Morr Theater were completed that same year. The Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, Samueli Theater, and Lawrence and Kristina Dodge Education Center opened in 2006. They were the work of architect Cesar Pelli, the recipient of numerous awards and professional honors, including the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal in 1995.
The Ventura River, in western Ventura County in southern California, United States, flows 16.2 miles (26.1 km) from its headwaters to the Pacific Ocean. The smallest of the three major rivers in Ventura County, it flows through the steeply sloped, narrow Ventura Valley, with its final 0.7 miles (1.1 km) through the broader Ventura River estuary, which extends from where it crosses under a 101 Freeway bridge through to the Pacific Ocean.
Saticoy is an unincorporated community in Ventura County, California, United States. The site of one of the largest settlements of the Chumash region, a settlement was laid out in 1887 along the railroad line that was being built from Los Angeles through the Santa Clara River Valley to the town of San Buenaventura. Although the town was 10 miles (16 km) distant at that time, the City of Ventura grew to a point where only a small residential and commercial community is left outside the city limits. For statistical purposes, the United States Census Bureau has defined that community as a census-designated place (CDP).
The Pacific Symphony is a symphony orchestra based in Orange County, California. The orchestra performs at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall as a part of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California. From 1987 to 2016, the orchestra's Summer Festival concerts took place at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre in Irvine, California.
Ventura station is a passenger rail station in downtown Ventura, California. The station is served by Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner from San Luis Obispo to San Diego. Ten Pacific Surfliner trains serve the station daily. Of the 73 California stations served by Amtrak, Ventura was the 33rd-busiest in FY2010, boarding or detraining an average of approximately 125 passengers daily. The single platform is located on the south side of the tracks with a view of the Santa Barbara Channel and the Channel Islands. The Ventura Freeway is parallel with and on the north side of tracks.
St. Thomas Aquinas Chapel is a former Catholic chapel located in Ojai, in Ventura County of southern California. It now houses the city's museum, research library, and historical society.
Ventura County Library is a free public library system of 12 community libraries and a museum library in Ventura County, California, organized in 1916. At the time of its centennial in 2016, the system provided access to 412,715 physical volumes and more than 500,000 virtual items to its nearly 300,000 card holders.
Henry Thomas Segerstrom was a widely recognized and esteemed American philanthropist, entrepreneur, cultural leader, and patron of the arts. Managing Partner of C.J. Segerstrom & Sons, he was the founding chairman of the Orange County Performing Arts Center, now known as the Segerstrom Center for the Arts.
The Thomas Fire was a massive wildfire that affected Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties, and one of multiple wildfires that ignited in southern California in December 2017. It burned approximately 281,893 acres before being fully contained on January 12, 2018, making it the largest wildfire in modern California history at the time. It was surpassed by the Ranch Fire, part of the Mendocino Complex, in August 2018. The fire is currently the eighth-largest wildfire in modern California history, as of 2025. The fire was officially declared out on June 1, 2018, after more than two months in which no hotspots were detected. The Thomas Fire destroyed at least 1,063 structures, while damaging 280 others; and the fire caused over $2.2 billion in damages, including $230 million in suppression costs, becoming the seventh-most destructive wildfire in state history at the time. As of August 2020, the Thomas Fire is California's tenth-most destructive wildfire. Ventura's agriculture industry suffered at least $171 million in losses due to the Thomas Fire.
The Ventura County Historic Landmarks & Points of Interest consist of buildings, sites, and neighborhoods designated by Ventura County Cultural Heritage Board as historic landmarks and points of interest in Ventura County, California. The county board of supervisors created the Cultural Heritage Board in 1966 and in August 1968, two sites were designated: the Faulkner House near Santa Paula; and the Edwards Adobe in Saticoy. The scope was established to include the entire county: both cities and the unincorporated areas. The cities of Fillmore, Oxnard, Port Hueneme, Simi Valley, and Thousand Oaks have the county Cultural Heritage Board advise them and those designations are listed here. The cities of Moorpark, Ojai, Santa Paula, and Ventura established their own separate historic designation systems with the City of Ventura Historic Landmarks and Districts developing into an extensive list. The Port Hueneme Historical Society Museum houses historical artifacts, photographs and information on the history of the Hueneme area. The museum is in the Hueneme Bank Building.
The Ventura and Ojai Valley Railroad gave Ojai, California, a connection to the national rail network Pacific Coast Line at Ventura Junction. Ventura Junction was located at Southern Pacific Railroad milepost (MP) 397.3 a short distance west of Ventura station. The railway required grades as steep as three percent following the Ventura River upstream through Chrisman, Wadstrom, Ortonville, and then turning east through Mira Monte into Ojai. The line completed by Captain John Cross in 1898 became a branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1899. The first passenger train reached Ojai on 12 March 1898. Trains leaving Ojai at 07:20 and 16:00 made passenger stops at Grant, Tico, Las Cross, and Weldons before turning around at Ventura to return to Ojai at 13:00 and 20:15. Southern Pacific operated only one daily passenger train during the summer months; and all passenger service ended in the early 1930s.
The Ventura River Parkway Trail is a southern California rail trail along the Ventura River in Ventura County. Roughly paralleling California State Route 33 for 16.5 mi (26.6 km) from Ventura to Ojai, it follows the route of the former Ventura and Ojai Valley Railroad that was abandoned between 1969 and 1995.
The Ojai Tennis Tournament, often shortened to The Ojai, is an annual tennis tournament in Ventura County, California, headquartered at Libbey Park in downtown Ojai, about 80 miles (130 km) north of Los Angeles. The event, first held in 1896, is the oldest and largest amateur tennis tournament in the United States held in one location.