Former Gilman School teacher to face trial for sexual abuse

Jury selection begins Wednesday for the trial of a former Gilman School teacher accused of sexually abusing a teenage student.

Christopher K. Bendann, 40, faces federal charges of sexual exploitation of a minor, possession of child pornography and cyberstalking. He was charged a year ago after federal authorities picked up the case from Baltimore County, where Bendann was first charged.

His trial presents unique challenges. Child pornography cases rarely go to trial, and this case requires measures to protect the privacy of the victim, who is now an adult.

According to the criminal complaint, investigators found videos linked to Bendann’s personal email account that showed a child’s genitals and, in at least one video, Bendann touching the child. Bendann also deleted the videos after he learned his behavior had been reported, prosecutors said.

Bendann worked at the Gilman School, a private boys’ school in Roland Park, until he was fired last year after reports he gave children alcohol, took them to St. Paul’s School and Meadowood Regional Park and asked them to run naked for him in 2021, charging documents show.

Bendann has maintained his innocence, claiming outside the Baltimore County courthouse that Gilman School and Baltimore County “did their best to discredit him.”

Bendann’s attorney, Christopher Nieto, did not respond to a request for comment.

In court records, prosecutors allege that Bendann met the alleged victim when the child was attending high school in Gilman. On one occasion, Bendann drove to pick up the child from a party and told the boy he “owed” Bendann for the ride home; Bendann told the child, who was 15 or 16 at the time, to get naked and masturbate, prosecutors wrote.

The abuse continued and intensified, with Bendann sometimes making videos and threatening to release the sexual abuse footage if the teen did not continue to cooperate, according to prosecutors’ request to keep Bendann in custody until his trial. Bendann remains in custody.

“Minor Victim desperately tried to break the cycle, but Bendann manipulated him and coerced him into providing more images and videos,” Assistant District Attorney Colleen McGuinn wrote.

Steve Silverman, an attorney for the victim, said it is “incomprehensible” that Bendann would choose to go to trial rather than enter a plea.

“It breaks my heart that Bendann refuses to take responsibility and put everyone through this process,” Silverman said.