Former Gilman School teacher found guilty on all counts in sex abuse trial – Baltimore Sun

Former Gilman School teacher Christopher Bendann is guilty of sexually abusing a teenage girl, a federal court jury ruled on Wednesday.

The trial of the former teacher began last week and ended on Wednesday after Bendann decided not to testify.

Bendann, 40, was fired in 2023 from the private boys' school in Roland Park in north Baltimore, where he worked as a teacher and counselor, after allegations surfaced that he gave students alcohol and took them to parks at night to run “naked laps” in 2021.

The jury found the former teacher guilty of five counts of sexual exploitation of a child, three counts of possession of child pornography and one count of cyberstalking. Bendann's lawyers had previously admitted that he had stalked his former student online after his 18th birthday.

The charges carry a minimum sentence of 15 years for each count of child exploitation and a minimum sentence of 10 years for possession of child pornography.

The jury began deliberating around 3 p.m. after receiving detailed jury instructions and returned about an hour later to deliver their verdict.

Bendann did not appear to react as Bredar read the verdict. He stood upright and nodded slightly once.

Bendann's defense team had indicated that he might testify, but the defense closed its session on Wednesday morning without calling witnesses. Bendann said on Tuesday evening that he would sleep on it for a night, whether or not to testify, as his lawyer Gary Proctor had suggested. Bendann would testify that he had a sexual relationship with his accuser, who is now 23 when both men were adults.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kim Hagan categorically denied that description in her closing argument Wednesday, saying Bendann's former student was “not in a relationship.” Instead, he was “in hell,” she told jurors.

Last week, these jurors heard from Bendann’s accuser, who said that when he was 15, Bendann started picking him up at parties and taking him to McDonald's and suggesting that he take off his clothes or touch himself.

The accuser said Bendann, who was his 8th-grade teacher, later began abusing him, including at the homes of other Gilman families where Bendann was house-sitting. The former teacher later threatened to make videos and photos of the man public or send them to his friends and family, according to hundreds of pages of text messages dating to 2022.

The Baltimore Sun is not naming the man because he claims to be a victim of sexual abuse.

Two young men who visited Gilman with the accuser testified they participated in the “naked laps” they did in exchange for rides from Bendann. Another young man testified that as a teenager, Bendann asked him if he wanted to wrestle him as he came out of the shower at his family's house, where he was house-sitting. When the boy refused, Bendann nearly ripped his towel in half, he testified.

Prosecutors played jurors sexually explicit videos of the then-teenage boy that the FBI recovered from Bendann's iCloud account and other devices. Metadata on the video shows the first was recorded when the teen was 16. That video showed him in the passenger seat of Bendann's car, masturbating and naked from the waist down. Prosecutors said Bendann tried to delete the videos, but forensic experts recovered the evidence anyway.

For three days, the prosecutors presented other evidence, such as Bendann's monthly calendar and statements from Gilman's parents, who had hired him as a house sitter, which they said proved the videos were filmed when the teenager was a minor.

Christopher Nieto, Bendann's other court-appointed defense attorney, told jurors Wednesday that Bendann “obviously lost his mind” after the young man went to college, around the time he was accused of cyberstalking.

Nieto argued that the student's dedicated and attentive parents and friends would have noticed any signs of sexual abuse, if there had been any, when the teenager was still in high school.

“They didn't notice anything, they didn't see anything wrong. That's because there was nothing going on,” Nieto said, insisting that the “relationship bore fruit” after the teenager turned 18.

He also called the attempt to cast doubt on the reliability of the metadata associated with the videos “flawed.” The file data, which included location and date information, suggested the videos were created when the teen was still a minor.

The FBI contacted Apple to clarify why the dates on some videos appeared inconsistent. For example, a file's “creation date” was shown to be later than its “modification date,” a witness testified. Assistant U.S. Attorney Colleen E. McGuinn said in her rebuttal that the technology company explained the modification date likely referred to when the video was cropped.

Throughout the trial, the defense described Gilman as an exclusive and wealthy community that could be hostile toward gay men like Bendann.

“It doesn't matter if it's a private school or a public school. Sexual exploitation can happen in any community,” Hagan said, adding that Bendann ingratiated himself with the boy and his friends and took advantage of the student's vulnerability.

Last year, Bendann said at a news conference outside Baltimore County District Court, where he initially faced state charges before being indicted at the federal level, that he had been falsely accused.

“I know I am innocent,” he said at the time.

When his trial began last week, Bendann initially refused to leave his cell at the Chesapeake Detention Center until the presiding judge ordered him to appear in court, delaying jury selection by several hours.

Originally published: August 28, 2024 at 1:45 p.m.