A former Brooklyn high-school teacher pleaded guilty yesterday to having sex with a 16-year-old student during trips to Atlantic City – saying Jesus made him admit the crime.
“I did violate the law by doing certain sexual activities,” Paul Kerner, 62, an ex-special-ed teacher at Sheepshead Bay HS, said in Brooklyn federal court.
“I knew what I was doing.”
Kerner was busted by the FBI in March after Special Schools Investigator Ed Stancik charged the teacher had oral sex with a teenage student between fall 1998 and early 1999.
The girl, who is now 18, told The Post last night, “I’d like to see him in jail long enough for him to think about how he hurt somebody so young. He should never be around students or young people again.”
Stancik said Kerner twice took the girl to Atlantic City, where he gave her cash, videotaped her in a shower while she was wearing a bathing suit and coaxed her into having oral sex.
Kerner, who is married, yesterday voiced no remorse and did not apologize to his victim. At times he seemed befuddled and needed to have things explained to him.
When Judge Carol Amon asked him a routine question about whether anyone had coerced him into admitting guilt, Kerner replied, “Only Jesus … I came to this through God.”
At another point, when asked if he admitted bringing the girl to Atlantic City to have “sexual intercourse,” Kerner blurted out, “I’m not physically capable of having sexual intercourse.”
The judge and Assistant U.S. Attorney Christina Dugger explained to him that under the law, the term covers a range of sex acts.
Kerner faces up to three years and five months in prison and $250,000 in fines. He remains free on $200,000 bond until his sentencing Aug. 11.