Ex-Teacher Pleads Guilty in Sex Case

A former teacher at the scandal-ridden Ventura School pleaded guilty Tuesday to three felony charges of having unlawful oral sex with two 17-year-old female inmates and could face more than four years in state prison.

Bradley Gardner, a 42-year-old Camarillo resident, had previously denied that he engaged in unlawful sex acts with the girls between 1996 and 1998. He was charged in January with five felony counts, to which he pleaded not guilty in late May.

But on Tuesday, Gardner changed his plea after a lengthy discussion with his lawyer, Jorge Alvarado, who had just met with the judge and prosecutor on the case.

Alvarado and Gardner talked outside the Ventura County Courthouse for nearly an hour, then returned to Judge Bruce A. Clark’s courtroom and signed a plea agreement. Gardner pleaded guilty to three charges of engaging in oral copulation with a minor.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Linda Groberg said two remaining felonies--a fourth oral copulation count and charge of sex with a foreign object--will be dropped by the prosecution at a July 28 sentencing hearing.

“I think he has accepted responsibility for his conduct,” Groberg said after Tuesday’s hearing. “And it will not require a preliminary examination where the victims will have to testify about what happened at the facility.”

Outside the courtroom after the hearing, Alvarado said his client wanted to spare the victims from having to take the stand.

He added that Gardner has wanted to admit wrongdoing since the beginning, but was urged to wait until Alvarado could investigate the case further.

“From the first time I met him, he was prepared to plead guilty,” Alvarado said.

Gardner, a popular media-arts teacher since 1991, resigned from the school nine months before prosecutors filed criminal charges.

Alvarado said Tuesday the sex acts were “100% consensual” but still illegal because the two students were minors.

Alvarado said he hopes the judge will consider that Gardner came forward early, and worked with California Youth Authority investigators in reviewing this case and other incidents of misconduct at the school.

Although Gardner faces a maximum term of four years and four months in state prison, he could be given probation.

The terms of his guilty plea require, however, that he register annually as a convicted sex offender for the rest of his life. He may also be ordered to pay restitution to the victims.

Gardner’s plea change came one day after officials at the juvenile prison said 15 workers have been fired or forced to resign for having improper relations with inmates. This comes as a 2 1/2-year investigation of Ventura School employees nears completion.

Five of the workers were forced out after CYA officials concluded they had sex with inmates, an official said. The other 10 established relationships considered improper with male and female wards, bringing them food, magazines and other gifts.

A CYA spokesman in Sacramento said the inquiry could be concluded by Friday.

Gardner is the only Ventura School employee to face criminal charges, and county prosecutors said Monday they may not press charges in the six remaining cases referred to the district attorney by the CYA since September. Their reasons range from weak evidence to the statute of limitations having expired on some of the alleged incidents.

Times staff writer Daryl Kelley contributed to this story.