Moments before imposing prison time in a sexual abuse case Friday, a Maryland judge called attention to the profession of the man standing before him, calling it perhaps the most significant relationship a 14-year-old can experience.
Wp Get the full experience.Choose your plan ArrowRight
“You were a teacher,” Montgomery County Circuit Judge David Boynton said. “A teacher has the ability to support and help a person develop and grow and flourish, or to absolutely crush them. And that’s what you did.”
He then sentenced Maxwell Bero — a former history teacher at what was then Col. E. Brooke Lee Middle School in Silver Spring as well as a one-time candidate for Congress — to eight years in prison.
Bero, 31, had earlier pleaded guilty to sexually abusing two of his students after prosecutors say he spent months grooming and persuading them into his confidence.
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
Detectives said Bero sent one of the girls a nude picture of himself from his own bachelor party. Inside his classroom, he later groped and fondled that student while she sat on his lap and they were alone at the end of school days.
Bero also sent nude photos to a second student, whom he touched inappropriately during a student club activity in his classroom.
The grooming of both students, authorities said, began after Bero posted his Kik social media name on his classroom board and invited students to message him directly, ostensibly about school work.
“To violate that kind of trust is pretty heinous,” Boynton said.
Police say teacher sent nude photo of himself to eighth grader
The abuse occurred in 2014 and 2015 but went unknown for years. In 2019, Bero made a long-shot, unsuccessful bid for Congress on a progressive platform promising to address climate change and health care, among other issues.
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
A year later, one victim came forward, leading to Bero’s arrest. Then, as part of a more recent plea deal with prosecutors, Bero’s maximum penalty was capped at 10 years in prison.
It is unlikely Bero will serve the full eight years imposed on Friday.
In Maryland, inmates are eligible for parole consideration after 25 percent of their sentences have been served if they were convicted of a nonviolent offense, a category that includes sexual abuse of minors, according to prosecutors.
During the 90-minute sentencing hearing Friday, one of the victims spoke, as did Bero, his stepfather and his wife.
The victim, now 21 and speaking remotely into the courtroom, recalled the effects of the abuse as a teenager: “I remember many nights in high school, sitting in my towel after a shower, sobbing. I felt repulsed and angered by my own body.”
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
She said she currently suffers from clinical depression, an anxiety disorder and PTSD from the abuse. “I have lots of trouble sleeping. I cry almost every day,” she said. “I have tremendous trouble feeling safe in my own body.”
As the victim spoke, Bero sat at a courtroom table, looking down and taking occasional notes or a sip of water. His wife had earlier spoke in the courtroom, expressing her sorrow toward the victims and saying how her husband has worked to change himself.
“I do believe that love can endure,” she said, adding that relationships, no matter how fractured, “can be mended.”
Bero spoke for nearly nine minutes. “Your honor, reaching the decision to take a plea in this matter was a difficult one for me,” he began. “I consider myself a student of the Constitution — I carried one in my pocket for 10 years — and an advocate for American civil rights. At first, taking the plea felt like giving up those rights, regardless of the guilt.”
Attorney says attack by football players was not sexual assault
But he said he’d come to understand “the reality of the criminal justice system” and how actions fit therein. “My conduct over six years ago was inappropriate, criminal and morally reprehensible,” Bero said.
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
He praised the two victims for showing “immense bravery and strength” for coming forward, and said he did not want to further traumatize them by going through a trial.
Bero also paraphrased a legendary sports figure when he said, “Golfer Bobby Jones once compared golf to life, saying you have bad breaks and good breaks, but you have to play the ball where it lies.”
Bero continued the reference, “For a long time, my mind could not accept that it was me who participated in this inappropriate criminal conduct. I refused to play the ball where it lies and face my actions. .？.？. I am now able to effectively play the ball where it lies and accept what I have done.”
Story continues below advertisement
He thanked his support groups and said that embracing the Buddhist ideologies of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path has strengthened his Catholic faith.
Advertisement
“I have done a lot of good in my life, both professional and personal,” Bero said. “I have accepted that the good I have done does not erase or minimize my conduct which brings me in front of the court today.”
Police training gains clout as law enforcement seeks to reduce killings
County has spent over $17 million fighting officers who allege racism
Teens drive spike in carjackings with pandemic limiting supervision