Former L.A. Teacher Gets 25 Years For Feeding Kids Cookies Laced With His Semen

LOS ANGELES — A former Los Angeles elementary school teacher charged with blindfolding students and spoon-feeding them cookies laced with his semen has agreed to plead no contest to all charges, an attorney for some of the victims said Thursday.

Mark Berndt plans to enter the legal equivalent of guilty pleas to 23 charges at a hearing Friday, according to John Manly, an attorney who represents 30 Miramonte Elementary School students and their parents. Manly said he was notified of the plea by prosecutors.

The plea agreement, first reported by the Daily News of Los Angeles, calls for Berndt to be sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Manly called the agreement a victory for his clients and said they are grateful for being treated “with decency and dignity” by prosecutors.

“He’s going to jail essentially for the rest of his life,” he said of the 62-year-old Berndt. “You can’t ask for more than that.”

He said prosecutors urged a plea deal because “they were concerned about re-traumatizing the children at trial.”

The district attorney’s office and Berndt’s lawyer declined to comment.

Berndt taught at the South Los Angeles school for more than 30 years. 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.

According to prosecutors, Berndt used the semen-coated cookies for “tasting games” with students. He was removed from the classroom in January 2011.


He fed the kids cookies with his cum on it?




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