LAUSD accused of Miramonte abuse cover-up

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The Los Angeles Unified School District is under fire for its handling of the Miramonte sex-abuse case. Attorneys for the victims are accusing the district of destroying records.

The new allegations come after the release of a 500-page pre-trial report, which was released by an L.A. County judge. The new report details new allegations of abuse against former Miramonte Elementary School teacher Mark Berndt, including allegations he touched and exposed himself to students at the school.

Berndt was sentenced to 25 years in prison after entering his no contest plea to 23 counts of lewd conduct in November. Prosecutors said Berndt fed students his semen on cookies and by spoon in what he called "tasting games," sometimes blindfolding and photographing them.

The school district has already paid $30 million to settle with 63 students, but another group of plaintiffs will go to trial this summer. The attorney representing that group says the district purposely destroyed files that detailed allegations of physical sexual abuse against Berndt dating back to 1981.

This is the first public allegations that Berndt sexually abused the students.

"It's my opinion that the LAUSD started destroying these records right around the time when these archdiocese cases were going on. They had something to hide. They knew there was a lot of material in those files to hide," said attorney Brian Claypool. "That, in a civilized society, is simply intolerable."

The school district says the files were merely copies of law enforcement documents that they had to destroy by state law.

"When the school district reviewed the law regulating possession and disclosure of these records, it realized that it had erred by collecting these highly confidential law enforcement documents and made sure to bring its policies in line with statute. It destroyed this duplicate information," the district spokesperson Sean Rossall said in a statement.

Berndt's attorney Manny Medrano said his client is innocent of the allegations in the pre-trial report.