It was a trial seemingly made for Court TV: a high school principal accused of covering up a star athlete's sex scandal so the kid could play in the big game.
Sensational stuff, with an even more stunning ending, as the jury spent only 20 minutes deliberating before declaring Dr. Dwight Bernard not guilty.
"I personally, I think it was a waste of taxpayer resources, that's my opinion, " Bernard said at a news conference in his lawyer's Miami office Wednesday afternoon.
The former principal of Miami Northwestern High School said the only thing the three-year-long prosecution accomplished was tarnishing the reputation he spent two decades earning.
"Doing the right thing, and that becomes your fiber, that's who you are, and then to be put into a situation like this where all of that's questioned, so we're now talking about 20 years of experience, and for what?" Bernard said.
The ordeal for Bernard started in 2006, when star Northwestern Bulls football player Antwaine Easterling, who was 18, was arrested for having sex with a 14-year-old girl. Prosecutors said Bernard covered up the crime, treating it as a school issue instead of a criminal issue, and even after Easterling was arrested, refused to suspend him from school.
The former principal said just the opposite happened. Bernard said he wanted to suspend Easterling, which would've kept the running back out of the upcoming state championship game, but was overruled by the deputy superintendent, who denied that in court, under oath.
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"That was very disappointing," Bernard said. "Very disappointing."
Bernard said he regrets none of his actions, which ultimately led to the charges that he covered up the star player's scandal.
"If we're talking about the events that led up to Antwain playing, I would not have done anything differently from what I did, nothing," Bernard said.
For the past three years, Bernard has been working for the Miami-Dade School District, reassigned to "other duties" as they say, while his trial played out. Now that he's been vindicated by a jury, what will the career educator do with his professional life?
"That's a very good question, what's next," Bernard said. "I haven't thought through that far yet, you gotta understand, up until last Friday, I was facing 10 years in prison, and I had no say in the matter, it was left to that jury to decide, and thank God they did."
Bernard said he wants to be a principal again, he just doesn't know where. His life, he says, can never go back to what it was, because as unfair as it may be, some will always question his integrity because of the Easterling case.
