California teacher accused of feeding semen to students pleads no contest to lewd act charges

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – A once-respected former teacher accused of committing lewd acts on children in what authorities said he called “tasting games” pleaded no contest Friday to all the charges against him as victims’ family members tearfully told him he had ruined their lives.

Mark Berndt, 62, entered the legal equivalent of guilty pleas to 23 counts of committing lewd acts on children. Under a plea deal, the former teacher at Miramonte Elementary School in Los Angeles was immediately sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Berndt was accused of blindfolding students while spoon-feeding them semen-laced cookies and sometimes putting huge cockroaches on them.

Before Berndt was sentenced, a parade of sobbing mothers denounced him, saying he had ruined their lives and the lives of their daughters. The women were not named in court.

They said they could not understand how the school district did not know about the incidents.

Some said their daughters could no longer eat cookies or anything sweet unless they knew their mothers had baked the items for them. They spoke of girls who had now become unable to socialize and locked themselves in their bedrooms.

Defence attorney Manny Medrano said Berndt is remorseful and apologetic and that he had chosen to enter his plea to avoid causing pain to the children during a trial.

“The last thing Mr. Berndt wanted was to see 23 child witnesses have to walk through this gate to the witness stand,” Medrano said, noting that his client will serve 19 1/2 years in prison due to time served current statutes.

Berndt, his hands shackled and wearing an orange jail uniform, showed no reaction during the mothers’ statements and stared straight ahead.

John Manly, an attorney who represents 30 of Berndt’s students and their parents, said Thursday that he was notified of the plea by prosecutors, who urged a deal because “they were concerned about re-traumatizing the children at trial.”

Sean Rossall, a district spokesman, said 63 lawsuits filed on behalf of victims have been settled for a total of $29.5 million, and 71 others are pending.

He said the district had not seen the plea agreement and wouldn’t comment until it was entered in court.

Berndt, who taught for 32 years at the South Los Angeles school, was removed in 2011.

The allegations against him came to light when a drugstore photo technician noticed dozens of odd photos of blindfolded third-graders and reported them to authorities. Investigators said they discovered a plastic spoon in Berndt’s classroom trash bin. Tests found traces of semen on it.