Trial of ex-teacher tests court’s handling of child pornography images

When a former Gilman School teacher appears in federal court this week, it will be a rare example of a case going to trial involving charges of possession of child pornography.

In the United States, only 41 cases — or 2.9 percent — went to trial in fiscal year 2023, according to statistics from the U.S. Sentencing Commission. There were none in Maryland.

Chris Bendann, who worked at the private, independent boys’ school in Roland Park from 2007 to 2023, is due to stand trial Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore on charges of sexual exploitation of a child, possession of child pornography and cyberstalking.

These cases pose challenges to the criminal justice system and those charged with prosecuting them.

Bendann, 40, of Baltimore, is accused of victimizing a student and recording videos of the sexual abuse. He maintains his innocence.

During a hearing on Aug. 9, Assistant U.S. Attorney Colleen McGuinn said federal prosecutors plan to show the jury clips from eight videos. Both sides, she said, have agreed to turn off monitors facing the audience in the courtroom.

Senior U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar has ordered prosecutors and defense attorneys to notify court staff in advance if they plan to file a case. “this kind of graphic visual evidence.”

“There has to be a rehearsal of methods and techniques,” Bredar said. “The right balance has to be found, and we have to get it right.”

Meanwhile, Gary Proctor, one of Bendann’s attorneys, expressed concern that jurors would notice the precautions.

Bredar said court staff will do everything they can to cover up these attempts. “Nobody’s going to emphasize it,” he said. “Nobody’s going to draw attention to it.”

When he served as a Maryland prosecutor from 2005 to 2017, such cases occasionally came to trial, Rod Rosenstein said.

Sometimes, Rosenstein said, people will agree that photos and videos are child abuse material but deny having them in their possession. When that happens, the jury doesn’t have to see the images.

But Rosenstein, who later served as U.S. deputy attorney general, said there are other times when it’s impossible to protect jurors. Rosenstein said there are three defenses in these cases: “It’s not a child. It’s not sex. It’s not me.”

“If the defense maintains that they have a good argument,” he said, “then the jury should watch the video and draw their own conclusion.”

The United States Department of Justice has established policies and procedures for the protection of child pornography.

“I’ve compared it to dealing with any type of contraband in a courtroom,” said Kenya Davis, who served as an assistant district attorney in Washington, D.C., from 2009 to 2022, including as a senior trial attorney in the Sexual Crimes and Domestic Violence Unit. “You almost treat it like it’s a gun or a package of drugs.”

“It’s not going to sit in the courtroom,” she said. “It’s not going to be passed around haphazardly.”

Davis said the reason many of these cases don’t go to trial is because the evidence can be incriminating. The sentencing guidelines, she said, are also strict.

“It’s hard to say, ‘It’s not me, or it’s not the child, or what I did wasn’t sexual abuse,'” said Davis, now a partner at Boies Schiller Flexner LLP in Washington, D.C. “It’s just really hard to get around the video.”

When prosecutors in these types of cases enter into plea agreements, they often think about the possibility of a child testifying, she said.

But Davis said these children are brave and resilient. And they will testify when needed.

Victims of sexual assault want their perpetrators to be brought to justice, said Lisae Jordan, executive director and attorney at the Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault.

But any time other people witness their exploitation, it feels invasive and damaging, Jordan says.

“You know intellectually that it’s a juror or a prosecutor or a judge,” Jordan said. “But it still feels wrong. And it still feels damaging.”

Steve Silverman, managing partner of Silverman Thompson in Baltimore, represents the student who reported sexual abuse by Bendann.

Once the FBI did its due diligence and certified that the images contained child sexual abuse, Silverman said, “it’s pretty much a strict liability case.”

“It’s heartbreaking that it’s going to court,” Silverman said. “But I think that’s the defendant’s right.”