http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lan...sted-lewd-acts-told-children-it-was-game.html
A Miramonte Elementary School teacher who taught for three decades in South L.A. told students they would be playing "a game" before tying them up and feeding them from a spoon possibly containing semen, sources said.
Mark_BerndtMark Berndt, 61, who is charged with lewd acts on 23 children and was taken into custody Monday, told the children the spoon contained something sugary and sweet, but authorities said they believed the substance was his semen, said the sources, who declined to comment on the record because the investigation is ongoing.
Berndt was fired in March and was being held Tuesday on $2.3-million bail.
A spoon recovered from a trash bin in Berndt's classroom is a key piece of evidence, said Capt. Mike Parker of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
"Early in the investigation, special victims bureau detectives recovered a blue plastic spoon and an empty container from the trash within the suspects classroom," Parker said. "The recovered items tested positive for semen."
Through further investigation, the suspects DNA was obtained and tested, and officials said it matched that of the DNA found on the spoon and container.
Berndt's arrest capped a nearly yearlong investigation by the L.A. County sheriff's special victims unit.
The investigation began when a photo processor turned over to authorities pictures of some alleged acts of bondage and the spoon-feeding, officials said.
The 23 alleged victims are both boys and girls and ranged in age from 7 to 10. The crimes occurred between 2008 and 2010, Parker said.
Investigators recovered photos from the processor and Berndt's home that allegedly showed the students bound and blindfolded and some with large Madagascar cockroaches crawling on them inside the school setting, Parker said.
Some girls were allegedly photographed with a blue spoon holding a white substance near their mouths, Parker said.
"Early in the investigation, special victims bureau detectives recovered a blue plastic spoon and an empty container from the trash within the suspects classroom," Parker said. "The recovered items tested positive for semen."
Parker said that, so far, 10 children in the photos recovered have not been identified. More than 80 children and staff have been in interviewed. Miramonte Elementary is in the Florence Firestone unincorporated area of Los Angeles County and is within the Los Angeles Unified School District.
From:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lan...rities-say.html
quote:
Scott said Berndt, a 30-year teacher, portrayed the bondage and spoon as part of a game that he played regularly in his classroom.
"This occurred in his regular classroom with his students," Scott said. "It wasn't done in secrecy. The only secret was what the game was really about."
