A panel of jurors has been chosen for the federal trial of a former Gilman School teacher accused of sexually abusing a teenage student.
Opening statements are set to begin Friday morning. The defendant, 40-year-old Christopher K. Bendann, faces charges of 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 has been incarcerated pretrial, 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 would like to skip certain parts of the trial, including testimony by government agents.
Bredar granted the request, telling Bendann he can choose which days he attends the trial. Bendann was in court Thursday for the second day of jury selection. He said he intends to testify and has maintained his innocence.
Federal prosecutor have said that investigators found videos linked to Bendann’s personal email account that depicted a child’s genitals and, in at least one video, showed Bendann touching the child. Bendann also deleted the videos after he learned his behavior had been reported, prosecutors say. Bendann allegedly met the boy when he was a middle schooler at Gilman.
The teen, now an adult, is expected to testify Friday.
Bendann was fired last year from the private all-boys institution in North Baltimore’s Roland Park neighborhood following reports that he had given alcohol to teenagers and asked them to run naked in front of him at a park in 2021.
