Arraignment Reset for Ex-CYA Teacher

An arraignment in the sex assault case against former vocational teacher Bradley Gardner, 42, was postponed Friday after the defense requested more time to obtain documents.

The case was continued to next week after a hearing in which defense lawyer Jorge Alvarado asked a Ventura County Superior Court judge to force prosecutors to turn over hundreds of pages of documents about the youth prison where Gardner taught since 1991.

Specifically, Alvarado wanted access to a 103-page inspector general’s report on mismanagement and sexual misconduct at Ventura School, a coed California Youth Authority prison near Camarillo.

But Judge Roland Purnell ruled that the information contained in the report, which he had reviewed privately, was not relevant to Gardner’s case.

Purnell turned over a separate 49-page report prepared during a youth authority investigation of Gardner.

“Certainly the defendant is entitled to have that information,” the judge said.

Prosecutors had opposed the release of the administrative document, saying it revealed confidential information, such as the identity of investigators and victims. Purnell said Gardner already knows who those individuals are.

Gardner was arrested Jan. 27 and charged with four counts of having oral sex with two 17-year-old female inmates while he was their videotape instructor at Ventura School. He is free on $20,000 bail.

His next arraignment date is set for Friday.