A Burbank high school teacher who admitted to repeated use of cocaine in school, while claiming his drug habit did not violate professional ethics, was sentenced to probation, officials said Thursday.
Los Angeles County Municipal Judge Rand Rubin conditionally sentenced Richard Bedigan, 47, to probation--an outcome that could lead to any criminal record for the Burroughs High School science teacher being expunged. Bedigan, who was the junior varsity girls tennis coach, was ordered to complete a two-year drug counseling and testing program.
Neither Rubin nor Bedigan could be reached for comment.
Bedigan has been on unpaid leave from his job since his arrest in October after he was observed taking cocaine in his Burroughs High classroom after his students had gone to lunch.
Bedigan admitted to regular use of cocaine on school grounds, according to court documents.
"He [Bedigan] does not feel that he ever violated the spirit of his profession," according to the probation report prepared by Walter Kelly, the Los Angeles County probation officer who handled Bedigan's case. "This writer strongly disagrees and would have grave concerns if this defendant returned to being a teacher."
Prosecutors said probation is the normal sentence for first offenders.
"If he fails the program, if he tests positive for drug use, if he blows it at all, he's looking at three years in prison," said Craig Mitchell, deputy district attorney assigned to the case.
School officials said they will seek to fire Bedigan, a seven-year veteran of the Burbank Unified School District.
Mitchell called the outcome pretty standard, because Bedigan had no priors.
The city's education code stipulates that drug use is a dismissible offense, said Bob Fraser, district director of personnel, explaining the district's decision to begin the termination process.
A Burbank resident and 1968 Burbank High School alum, Bedigan has maintained his silence since his arrest and has kept the shades drawn at his home, a block away from Burbank High.
Edward Bedigan, Richard's father, served as assistant superintendent of the Burbank school district for 10 years until his retirement in 1973. He died of cancer in 1992. The elder Bedigan began his career as an educator in the same high school where his son was arrested.
Bedigan's guilty plea is the latest in a series of personnel problems faced by the Burbank school district in the last three years.
Last week, Burbank High basketball coach Sean Martinez was fired for lying to school officials in connection with a run-in the coach had with the president of the local booster club, as well as for an incident of using profanity in the presence of his players.
In April, Robert Goar, a former chairman of the Burroughs High science department, pleaded no contest to charges he molested the 14-year-old daughter of a friend employed by the school district.
Last year, Salle Dumm, president of the Burbank Education Foundation, a nonprofit fund-raising organization connected to the school district, was tried on charges she had sex with a 17-year-old Burbank High football player. A judge eventually declared a mistrial and dismissed the charges.
