Deputies Discover 200 New Photos Allegedly Taken By Miramonte Elementary Teacher
TORRANCE (CBS) — Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies have discovered approximately 200 new explicit photos reportedly taken by a teacher at Miramonte Elementary School.
Authorities say the pictures were taken by Mark Berndt, 61, who was arrested in late January on 23 felony counts of lewd acts on a child.
According to officials, the new pictures were found at the same South Bay CVS Pharmacy where he had taken other sexually explicit pictures of his students to be developed.
Berndt is accused of taking at least 400 photos of students bound, gagged and blindfolded in his classroom between 2008 and 2010. Some photos show cockroaches being placed on the students' faces. In other pictures, police say the children are being fed a milky-white substance on a spoon or cookies.
The new photos were recovered late last week after a search of the drug store's computer systems. Sheriff's department officials say the pictures are similar to ones already confiscated.
Other pictures from the same CVS developed in the fall of 2010 led authorities to begin a more than year-long investigation of the educator.
Berndt is being held on $23 million bail.
