Charges beefed up against Hudson teacher accused of sexual contact with fifth-grader in her class

Prosecutors have beefed up allegations against a onetime Hudson, Wis., elementary school teacher accused of having sexual contact throughout most of the school year with a fifth-grade boy.

River Crest Elementary School teacher Madison Lynn Bergmann, 24, of Lake Elmo now stands charged with the previously filed first-degree sexual assault with a child under age 13, and now with use of a computer to commit a child sex crime, exposing a child to harmful descriptions, two counts of child enticement and five counts of sexual conduct by a school staffer.

Bergmann is due back in St. Croix County Circuit Court on Wednesday. She remains free on bond in the meantime. Her attorney declined Monday to comment on the allegations.

The school district placed Bergmann on administrative leave in May, when the initial charge was filed.

According to the latest charges, which cover September 2023 to late April:

A Hudson police detective, while meeting on May 1 at the school with the principal, a district administrator and the student’s father, was given printouts of incriminating texts between Bergmann and the student. The texts disclosed that the two had kissed and expressed a sexual attraction to each other.

The father said that two days earlier his son was caught talking with Bergmann on the phone. His mother emailed Bergmann and asked the teacher to stop talking with her son outside of school.

Bergmann was removed from class on the day the detective was at the school and interviewed in another room by police. She said she went on a snowboarding outing with the boy and his family this past winter, and the two of them exchanged phone numbers.

Asked about any texting with the boy, Bergmann did not answer and requested an attorney.

The detective went back to Bergmann’s class and collected her belongings, including a backpack that held a folder with the boy’s name on it. Inside were love notes from the boy. Bergmann was then arrested and escorted to jail.

The boy told police that he and Bergmann had been communicating almost daily and slyly caressing each other.

One day, he continued, Bergmann told him to stay after class. She gave him what he said was his first kiss. He said he gave her a hug in return and left the room. He added that they kissed several times in the classroom since March.

He said they also had conversations with Bergmann that turned to the potential for them to have sex.

Bergmann’s online resume says she began teaching at River Crest in August 2022 and worked for Sylvan Learning in Hudson for nearly three years before that. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls in 2022.