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Former Maryland teacher refuses to leave prison for trial

Madeleine O’Neill
| Baltimore Sun

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BALTIMORE – A former Gilman School teacher will appear in court Wednesday on charges he sexually assaulted a teenage student who refused to leave his detention center and appear in court, the judge presiding over the case said.

The defendant, 40-year-old Christopher K. Bendann, refused to accompany U.S. Marshals when they drove to the Chesapeake Detention Center in Baltimore on Wednesday morning to pick Bendann up for the first day of his trial.

More than 70 jurors were assembled and awaiting jury selection, said Chief U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar. Bredar ordered the U.S. Marshals Service to dispatch officers and inform Bendann that he must appear for trial.

Bendann's attorney, Christopher Nieto, recently contacted the prison and asked that Bendann be evaluated for suicidal thoughts, but the defense is not claiming that Bendann is incompetent to stand trial.

“You can be sane and still have suicidal thoughts,” said Gary Proctor, Bendann's other attorney.

Proctor said forcing Bendann to leave his cell could irreparably damage the attorney-client relationship. The fact that Bendann refused to appear in court showed that he had no confidence in his lawyers, Proctor said in court.

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However, Bredar said the defendants must at least initially appear in court.

“We are ready to begin the trial,” the judge said.

Bendann is charged in federal court with sexual exploitation of a minor, possession of child pornography and cyberstalking. He was indicted a year ago after federal authorities took over the case from Baltimore County, where Bendann was first charged.

According to the indictment, investigators found videos linked to Bendann's private email account that showed a child's genitals and, in at least one video, Bendann touching the child. Bendann also deleted the videos after learning that his behavior had been reported, prosecutors said.

Bendann worked at the Gilman School, a private boys' school in the Roland Park neighborhood of north Baltimore, until he was fired last year after reports emerged that in 2021 he gave children alcohol, took them to St. Paul's School and Meadowood Regional Park and asked them to walk naked in front of him, charging documents say.

Bendann maintained his innocence and claimed outside the Baltimore County Courthouse that Gilman School and Baltimore County were “doing their best to defame him.”

Court documents say Bendann met the alleged victim when the child attended middle school in Gilman.

On one occasion, Bendann drove to pick up the child from a party and told the boy he “owed” Bendann the ride home; Bendann told the child, who was 15 or 16 at the time, to undress and masturbate, prosecutors wrote.

The abuse continued and even got worse. Bendann sometimes made videos and threatened to release the images of the sexual abuse if the teenager did not continue to cooperate. This is according to the prosecutor's request to keep Bendann in custody until his trial. Bendann remains in custody.

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