Jury selected for trial of former Gilman School teacher’s sexual abuse

A jury has been empaneled for the federal trial of a former Gilman School teacher accused of sexually abusing a teenage student.

Opening statements begin Friday morning. The suspect, 40-year-old Christopher K. Bendann, is charged with sexual exploitation of a minor, possession of child pornography and cyberstalking.

Jury selection began Wednesday but was delayed for several hours when Bendann refused to leave the Chesapeake Detention Facility in Baltimore, where he is being held ahead of the trial, to come to court. After Senior U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar ordered Bendann to appear, Bendann relented but said in court that he wanted to skip certain parts of the trial, including testimony from government agents.

Bredar agreed to the request and told Bendann he could choose which days he would attend the trial. Bendann was in court Thursday for the second day of jury selection. He said he plans to testify and has maintained his innocence.

Federal prosecutors have said investigators found videos linked to Bendann’s personal email account that show 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 say. Bendann allegedly met the boy while he was in high school at Gilman.

The teenager, now an adult, is expected to testify on Friday.

Bendann was fired from the private, boys-only facility in North Baltimore’s Roland Park neighborhood last year after reports that he gave alcohol to teenagers in 2021 and asked them to run naked in front of him in a park.