Suspect Declares, ‘We’re Being Framed!’ : Neighbors Watch Arrest of ‘Real Family Types’

The serenity of Blue Lantern Street was shattered about 7 a.m. Tuesday. Residents peering from windows and doors saw what looked like a television police drama unfolding on their scenic street high above Dana Point Harbor.

But this was real life. Their neighbors, Charlotte Ruth Wyckoff and Elizabeth Leta Hamilton--who own and operate elementary and preschools in Orange and San Bernardino counties--were being arrested by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

“When you wake up in the morning and hear all kinds of racket and noises and cars screeching up and see the place surrounded by . . . agents carrying guns, 20 guys and 10 cars, yeah, you kind of wonder what’s going on,” said a woman who lives across the street. Neighbors of the arrested women believed the early-morning drama had, at worst, been a drug bust, and authorities at the scene gave them little information.

“Let’s just call it conspiracy,” one agent reportedly told a real estate broker across the street. “Now get out of here.”

The residents were flabbergasted to learn late Tuesday that the women they considered “the real family types”--Wyckoff, 51, and Hamilton, 39--had been charged with conspiracy, arson and use of napalm-like gasoline devices to firebomb cars belonging to former teachers who once worked for them.

In the driveway of their well-groomed, $350,000 Spanish-style home, Wyckoff and her business partner stood handcuffed against a car while federal agents toted out what one neighbor described as “big trash bags.”

“I asked her if there was anything I could do to help,” said one man, who asked not to be identified, “and (Wyckoff) shouted, ‘this is a set-up! We’re being framed!’ It was all very hard to understand.”

Meanwhile, a few miles away in San Juan Capistrano, employees at the Pacific Coast Preparatory School that Wyckoff and Hamilton have run since May, 1984, said they had even fewer details about the arrests. Several parents who picked up children at the school Tuesday afternoon said they also had not heard about the arrests. Some expressed less concern about the incidents than about where they were to take their children for school this morning.

Note on the Door

A note posted on the door of a private San Clemente elementary school that Wyckoff and Hamilton also run instructed parents to take their children to the San Juan Capistrano preschool until further notice.

Jenny Martin, who for five years has owned the Merry-Go-Round preschool a few doors down from Pacific Coast Preparatory School, said Wyckoff and Hamilton bought their preschool three years ago.

One month after the purchase, Martin said, the place was nearly destroyed by fire. Some parents said temporary quarters were set up in the yard of the preschool during remodeling. Wyckoff and Hamilton’s neighbors, including a volunteer Orange County firefighter, said investigators suspected arson. However, the Orange County Fire Department could not confirm whether the fire occurred.