Lewd Conduct

Here's another outrage about the child abuse scandal at Miramonte Elementary School: If the teacher accused of spoon-feeding his semen to blindfolded students is convicted and sent to prison, he'll still receive a public pension. Mark Berndt, charged with 23 counts of lewd conduct against children, is due nearly $4,000 a month. No matter the jury verdict. It's the law. Same deal for a fellow Miramonte teacher, Martin Springer, who was charged last week with three counts of lewd conduct alleging that he fondled a girl in his class.

Teachers who were removed from Miramonte Elementary School recounted their experiences for the first time Thursday, telling of public humiliation, lost sleep and questioning the pride they once had in the teaching profession. At least 40 teachers and other displaced staff members took part in a rally outside Augustus Hawkins High School in South Los Angeles, the unopened campus where they have reported for three months. Their removal followed the January arrest of former teacher Mark Berndt, who has pleaded not guilty to 23 counts of lewd conduct.

A jury on Tuesday found a former Newport Beach youth recreation leader guilty of 22 felony counts of lewd conduct, mostly for sucking the toes of more than a dozen young boys under his supervision. Jurors also found Trenton Michael Veches, 32, guilty of three misdemeanor counts of assaulting a child. Veches' lawyer, John Patrick Dolan, said he will appeal the verdict, which could carry a sentence of more than 300 years in prison but with the possibility of parole.

Former star center fielder Lenny Dykstra will not be allowed to post or solicit on social networking or e-commerce sites over the next three years as part of a plea deal with city prosecutors, authorities said. Dykstra pleaded no contest Wednesday to misdemeanor charges of lewd conduct and assault with a deadly weapon involving women who responded to housekeeping ads he placed on Craigslist, authorities said Wednesday. Prosecutors said he would receive nine months in jail. Under the plea deal, Dykstra also was placed on three years' probation, including provisions to prevent him from misusing the Internet, which he used to lure women who traveled long distances and were desperate for work in the bad economy.

The Los Angeles Unified School District paid Mark Berndt, the teacher at the center of the Miramonte Elementary child abuse scandal, $40,000 to drop the challenge to his dismissal last year. The payout consisted of four months of back salary plus reimbursement for the cost of health benefits. Berndt was fired by the Board of Education in February 2011 after officials learned that the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department was investigating him for alleged lewd acts against students.

A Board of Rights panel, in a session that lasted past midnight, found a Los Angeles police sergeant guilty today on three counts of lewd conduct with male prostitutes and recommended the department's harshest penalty short of firing. The three-member hearing board recommended that Sgt. Emmanuel Valencia, 37, be suspended without pay for six months for engaging in lewd conduct with a male prostitute on two occasions, Lt. Larry Goebel said.

An elementary school teacher pleaded innocent Wednesday to felony charges of lewd conduct involving children. Edward Portillo, 56, a teacher at the Bella Vista elementary school in Monterey Park, was arrested Jan. 27. Portillo, who is accused of lewd conduct with four children under age 14, remains in jail in lieu of $400,000 bail.

Police cited San Diego Chargers center Courtney Hall for engaging in lewd conduct in public and soliciting a prostitute last Sunday evening, authorities said. Patrol officers spotted Hall, 23, with Anthony Thompson, 26, on the 4000 block of Boundary Street in North Park shortly after 9 p.m., just hours after the Chargers' 20-9 loss at Seattle. Police spokesman Bill Robinson said that Thompson was dressed in women's clothing. Hall, who was released at the scene, faces a court hearing Dec.

Misdemeanor charges of indecent exposure and lewd conduct were lodged against Edwin A. Jones, 54, chairman of the Ventura County Board of Supervisors and former Thousand Oaks mayor, who was subdued by tear gas and arrested last week in Studio City after allegedly exposing himself to a young woman. Police said Jones was at a motel on Ventura Boulevard with a 38-year-old Agoura woman when another motel guest, a 22-year-old mother of two, walked through the courtyard.

An Orange middle-school teacher was ordered Friday to stand trial on charges that she engaged in lewd conduct with two students. A pretrial hearing was set for Feb. 8. Sarah Bench-Salorio, 28, has pleaded not guilty to 28 charges filed against her for the alleged trysts with her former English students. After listening to testimony from two boys in a preliminary hearing that ended Friday, Judge John D. Conley concluded that there was evidence that Bench-Salorio committed the crimes.

Miramonte Elementary, the school beset this year by misconduct charges against two teachers, will have a new center next fall for parents to take classes and hold meetings. The $143,535 project to relocate and update the center won unanimous approval Tuesday from the Los Angeles Board of Education. The upgrade at Miramonte, which is in unincorporated Florence-Firestone, is part of a $20-million districtwide plan authorized last year. Miramonte burst into the news in February with the arrest of Mark Berndt, who has pleaded not guilty to 23 counts of lewd conduct, including allegations that he photographed blindfolded students being spoon fed his semen.

Parents will be notified within 72 hours when a teacher is removed from a classroom because of sexual-misconduct allegations, Los Angeles school officials announced Thursday. The new policy addresses parent anger after the arrests of several teachers and other Los Angeles Unified School District employees. "The spate of cases involving sexual misconduct in recent months has prompted a reevaluation of our reporting procedures," Supt. John Deasy said in a statement. Parents at Miramonte Elementary in unincorporated Florence-Firestone were upset that they received no explanation when veteran teacher Mark Berndt was pulled from class early in 2011.

Republican lawmakers have joined with the Los Angeles Board of Education and the mayor to seek the swifter firing of teachers accused of sexual misconduct. They also want to strip retiree health benefits and state pensions from school employees convicted of sex-related crimes against students. Those moves would require changes to state law that were included in proposals announced Tuesday by the Republican legislative leadership. The school board's resolution, approved Tuesday, matches closely, as do proposed laws sought by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a Democrat.

The allegations of sexual molestation involving two teachers at Miramonte Elementary School have rightly rocked the Los Angeles Unified School District. Now that the alarm has been raised and the need to watch for and report suspicious behavior is better understood, more reports have arisen at other schools of possible abuses. And though it was an extreme move, we also supported the shifting and temporary replacement of the entire staff of Miramonte until the investigation has been completed, to ensure that students are protected.

Until the photos surfaced, it didn't appear that anything was seriously amiss at Miramonte Elementary School. The school was on the upswing. Test scores were rising. The campus south of downtown Los Angeles was bright with new paint, murals and $6 million in other improvements. A new principal brought in parent education workshops, student leadership programs and other activities. Even the neighborhood, notorious for gang violence and drugs, had calmed down. Then came the bombshell: photos showing Miramonte schoolchildren blindfolded and gagged, pictured with spoons containing a milky substance that authorities allege was the semen of Mark Berndt, 61, a third-grade teacher who has been charged with 23 counts of lewd conduct with children.

Here's another outrage about the child abuse scandal at Miramonte Elementary School: If the teacher accused of spoon-feeding his semen to blindfolded students is convicted and sent to prison, he'll still receive a public pension. Mark Berndt, charged with 23 counts of lewd conduct against children, is due nearly $4,000 a month. No matter the jury verdict. It's the law. Same deal for a fellow Miramonte teacher, Martin Springer, who was charged last week with three counts of lewd conduct alleging that he fondled a girl in his class.

The former principal of an Orange high school was convicted Thursday of masturbating in a public park. Brent Bailey, 56, resigned this year as head of El Modena High School after being arrested in December by a plainclothes police officer in a restroom at Fullerton's Brea Dam Trails park. He pleaded guilty at a Fullerton court Thursday to engaging in lewd conduct, a misdemeanor, and was sentenced to three years' probation.

Los Angeles school officials were scrambling Friday to explain why parents were never notified about the October arrest of a teacher at Telfair Elementary School in Pacoima for alleged child sexual abuse. Paul Chapel, a third-grade teacher who has been suspended without pay, is charged with 15 counts of lewd acts and continuous sexual abuse with three girls and one boy, each younger than 14, between Sept. 13, 2010, and April 15, 2011, according to a Sept. 28 complaint filed by the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.

The Los Angeles Unified School District paid Mark Berndt, the teacher at the center of the Miramonte Elementary child abuse scandal, $40,000 to drop the challenge to his dismissal last year. The payout consisted of four months of back salary plus reimbursement for the cost of health benefits. Berndt was fired by the Board of Education in February 2011 after officials learned that the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department was investigating him for alleged lewd acts against students.