Accused Teacher Held on $23M Bail

A former South Los Angeles-area of blindfolded and gagged students with roaches on their faces or spoons of semen held to their mouths made his first court appearance today on charges that he committed lewd acts on nearly two dozen children.

Mark Henry Berndt, 61, who taught for more than 30 years at Miramonte Elementary School at 1400 E. 68th St., was ordered to return to the Metropolitan Branch Courthouse for arraignment Feb. 21.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Marcelita V. Haynes ordered Berndt—who appeared in court in jail clothes—to be held in lieu of $23 million bail.

"We amended the complaint because there was an error on the amount of bail," said Sandi Gibbons of the District Attorney's Office regarding the original $2.3 million bail. "The bail is actually $23 million, which was upheld by the court. That's a million dollars per count."

Gibbons called the investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department "excellent," noting that it is still continuing.

Berndt was arrested Monday at his Torrance home, according to the Sheriff's Department.

He was later charged with 23 counts of committing a lewd act on a child involving 23 children, according to Jane Robison of the District Attorney's Office.

The charges involve 23 children 7-10 years old, who were allegedly abused between 2005 and 2011, according to the District Attorney's Office.

LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy said Berndt was removed from the classroom when allegations arose in January 2011, and he was fired from his job at Miramonte at the next school board meeting.

The superintendent pronounced himself "sickened and horrified" by the behavior attributed to Berndt and said crisis counselors have been provided to the children and their families since the investigation began.

Sheriff's Sgt. Dan Scott said the investigation began more than a year ago when a film processor turned over more than 40 photographs of children in a classroom with their eyes blindfolded and mouths covered in tape to the .

CBS Los Angeles reported that the film processor may have been a CVS One-Hour Photo lab; however, detectives are protecting the identity of the photo developer.

Redondo Beach police Sgt. Shawn Freeman, who reviewed the initial police report in October 2010, told CBS Los Angeles that the photos were "very strange in nature."

"It's school-aged children in these photographs, and these children are wearing blindfolds or they're wearing duct tape," he told CBS Los Angeles. "In some of these photographs, the male suspect has his arms around these students, and he's smiling, and they're smiling, and it just didn't seem appropriate at all for being in a classroom."

According to a Los Angeles Times timeline of events in the case, the RBPD turned over the case to the Sheriff's Department after learning that the photos were taken at Miramonte Elementary School, which is in an unincorporated section of South Los Angeles.

According to the Sheriff's Department, some of the photographs "depicted girls with what appeared to be a blue plastic spoon, filled with an unknown clear/white liquid substance, up to their mouths as if they were going to ingest the substance. There are also photos of children with large live Madagascar-type cockroaches on their faces and mouths."

Sheriff's officials said detectives found a blue plastic spoon and an empty container in a trash bin in Berndt's classroom. Both items tested positive for semen, and DNA testing matched it to Berndt, according to the Sheriff's Department. 

Deputies also served a search warrant at Berndt's home, where they found more than 100 photographs depicting children and similar to the batch of pictures initially turned over to authorities, Scott said.

"Also recovered was a DVD of film depicting adult sexual bondage activity which mirrored the bondage-type photos of the children," according to the Sheriff's Department statement. "The adults in the bondage were not identified, and the images in that video are not a crime."

Scott said detectives later found about 250 other photos at the film- processing business. More than 26 children were identified in the 390 total photos, but about 10 of them have not been identified.

More than 80 current and former students and school employees were interviewed during the investigation.

"It (the investigation) obviously took a long time because they had to track down these victims," Gibbons said. "They had photographs, but they did not have names. It involved extensive questioning, extensive interviews, a lot of very good police work on this case."

Gibbons said she was not sure if all of the children were third-graders at the time because "there were other children involved that may not have gone to that school."

"All of the allegations are that the events happened at the school, in the classroom," she said.

Nevertheless, one of Berndt's neighbors told the Times that he saw the teacher and a young girl riding a tandem bicycle along the Hermosa Beach waterfront. Additionally, the neighbor told the Times he frequently saw Berdnt drinking beer and watching women at the .

Anyone knowing the identity of other possible victims was urged to call the sheriff's Special Victims Bureau at 877-710-LASD; or Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.

If convicted, Berndt could face "multiple years to life" in prison, Gibbons said.

"There may be a possibility of parole, but we won't know that until the case actually goes to trial, is heard by a jury and the judge makes a decision on sentencing," she told reporters outside court after the brief hearing.