Ex-Gilman School teacher Chris Bendann: Former student testifies about sexual abuse

The sexual exploitation, the man testified, began when Chris Bendann picked him up after a night of partying.

He was 15 at the time and attending Gilman School, a private, independent boys' school in Baltimore's Roland Park. Bendann, he said, would drive him and his friends and take them to Meadowood Regional Park or to a hill near St. Paul's Schools, where they would run laps naked.

Then Bendann started taking him to McDonald's alone. The behavior, he said, “just got worse and worse.”

At first, the man testified, he watched pornography and masturbated in front of his teacher. Eventually, Bendann touched his genitals in a parking lot or in a house where he was working as a caretaker.

“Did you intend to do these things?” asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Colleen McGuinn.

“No,” the man replied.

“Why did you?” she asked.

“I was threatened,” he replied.

The man, now 23, testified for more than two hours in U.S. District Court in Baltimore on Friday, describing how the sexual abuse and extortion began, escalated and continued into his early adulthood, when federal prosecutors began to present their case. Bendann, 40, of Baltimore, is facing charges of sexual exploitation of a child, possession of child pornography and cyberstalking.

The Baltimore Banner does not disclose personal information about individuals who report sexual abuse without appropriate permission.

In his opening statement, Christopher Nieto, one of Bendann's attorneys, said his client was not guilty of sexual exploitation of a child and possession of child pornography.

None of the images presented in court were taken before the man's 18th birthday, he said.

But Nieto admitted that his client was guilty of cyberstalking and described the behavior as “embarrassingly regrettable.”

“Mr. Bendann did not have much experience with romantic relationships,” Nieto said. “His emotions obviously took over.”

The man panicked after his girlfriend found out about their relationship and lied about how it began, Nieto said. Members of the school community, he said, barricaded themselves, ostracized his client and turned against him to protect their own people.

The man testified that Bendann was his teacher, coach and counselor in eighth grade.

He seemed like a “cool guy.” They texted, went to breakfast, and hung out.

His mother said it was as if Bendann was a “pied piper.” Students entering middle school were curious to meet him, she testified.

“I trusted him blindly,” she said, referring to Bendann almost exclusively as “the defendant” during her testimony.

Bendann, the man said, filmed him. He estimated that he was 15 or 16 years old at the time.

Prosecutors showed the jury several sexually explicit images, including one that showed Bendann's face.

When the man went to college, he said he felt compelled to maintain contact with his former teacher. Bendann constantly sent him messages if he didn't respond, he testified, and threatened to publish the intimate pictures.

The man said he would make so-called deals. He said he would send Bendann a certain number of nude photos and videos in which he had to smile and appear happy.

But nothing was ever satisfactory.

“Whatever the defendant wanted,” the man testified, “he said I had to do.”

Bendann, he said, created a fake Instagram page that contained some of the images – and threatened to make them public. Eventually, he did so.

The man's girlfriend ended up stumbling over everything.

He then explained to her that there had been sexual abuse for five or six years and that he was afraid, the man testified. But he lied and told her that it would soon be over.

“I thought it would stop everything in some way,” he testified. “It just didn't.”

Then came Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2023.

Gilman School Principal Henry PA Smyth and Human Resources Director Angela Johnson met with Bendann after the school received allegations that children were running laps naked and placed him on leave.

The school then conducted its own investigation and fired Bendann four days later via Zoom.

In the meantime, the man said, he told his father everything. He then spoke to the FBI and Baltimore County police.

Johnson testified that Bendann denied the allegations and accused the school of persecuting him because he was Asian. He asked who made the allegations.

“Bendan,” she said, and then seemed to cry.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kim Hagan asked Johnson why she said it looked like Bendann was crying.

“Because,” she said, “no tears were shed.”