Madison Bergmann’s victim told the court before her sentencing on Friday that his former fifth-grade teacher’s sexual misconduct “didn’t just break school rules — it broke my childhood.”
Bergmann, 26, of Lake Elmo, pursued the then-11-year-old boy throughout much of the 2023-24 school year through daily texts — more than 35,000 in all between them — and eventually kissed him on the mouth on several occasions in her classroom at Rivercrest Elementary School in Hudson, Wis., either after school or during lunch, according to court records.
Madison Lynn Bergmann (Courtesy of the St. Croix County Sheriff’s Office)
Bergmann, who pleaded guilty to three felonies, was given six years in prison by St. Croix Circuit Judge Scott Nordstrand, who said her crimes were “deliberate, purposeful” and “have been devastating to the victim, life changing for that young boy.”
In a victim impact statement submitted to the court this week, the boy wrote that he “will live with the consequences for the rest of my life, even though she is the one who chose to do this, not me.”
In September, Bergmann entered guilty pleas to one count of child enticement with sexual contact and two counts of sexual misconduct by school staff.
Several charges were dismissed as part of a plea deal she reached with prosecutors: one count each of first-degree child sexual assault of a child under age 13; use of a computer to commit a child sex crime; exposing a child to harmful descriptions; a third count of child enticement; and three additional counts of sexual conduct by a school staffer.
As part of her sentence, Bergmann will be on extended supervision for six years following incarceration. She will have to register as a sexual offender for the rest of her life, a condition that was negotiated as part of the plea deal. She was given credit for just shy of three months already served in custody.
Bergmann faced up to 18 years in prison, but the state had agreed to no more than 12 years.
Bergmann’s attorney, Joe Tamburino, asked the judge to give her probation, saying a psychosexual report concluded she is particularly amenable to outpatient sex offense treatment and a “very low risk” to reoffend. Tamburino noted that probation recommended that she be sentenced to four to six years in prison.
Boy’s dad found texts
According to the criminal complaint, the illicit conduct was first discovered after the boy’s mother discovered Bergmann talking to her son on the phone on April 29, 2024. She then emailed Bergmann, telling her to stop contacting the boy outside of school.
The mother took the boy’s phone and gave it to his father, who found the text messages and notified the school. In the boy’s desk, police found a letter that Bergmann wrote to him, saying: “I love you so much it hurts,” the complaint said.
Several printed screenshots of text messages between the boy and Bergmann were given to police. In one text, Bergmann wrote that she “wanted to just grab your face and push you to the floor and make out with you.” In another text, the teacher told the boy how she “almost kissed you when you were on the ground today but I got distracted by your stomach,” the complaint said.
In an interview with police at the school, Bergmann said she spoke with the boy over the phone four or five times. She said that she had been invited to go snowboarding at Afton Alps with the boy and his family and she exchanged phone numbers with him in case they became separated.
When Bergmann was asked if there had been any text messages exchanged between her and the boy, she requested an attorney.
Police found in Bergmann’s backpack a folder with the boy’s name on it and several handwritten notes. “In her notes she tells him that she loves him, wants to kiss him, he turns her on, and that she is obsessed with him,” the complaint said.
The boy said Bergmann had touched his hand, shin and thigh while he sat next to her desk during independent reading time and that “he did not believe any of the other kids would see it happening,” the complaint said.
The boy said Bergmann told him to stay after class and that she approached him and kissed him on the mouth. He said that Bergmann had kissed him several times in the classroom after school or during lunch.
Bergmann started teaching for the Hudson School District in fall 2022. In an email to parents after her arrest, Superintendent Nick Ouellette called the allegations “gut wrenching” and added, “I want you to know the School District is taking this very seriously.”
‘Grooming behavior’
Assistant St. Croix County Attorney Alysja Otten told the court there were 35,429 messages between Bergmann and the boy between Dec. 26, 2023, and May 1, 2024, when she was arrested.
“I think it’s important to note how this was escalating behavior, grooming behavior,” Otten said.
Judge Nordstrand said the “sheer quantity and lurid content of the defendant’s texts belie any concern for the victim, her position of trust for school, for community.” He said that while reading many of the texts, “honestly, I couldn’t tell who the 11-year-old was sometimes. I know that sounds crazy.”
Nordstrand said he suspects that if the boy’s parents had not discovered the texts, “there likely would have been a physical relationship that would have resulted in much, much greater harm.”
Bergmann sobbed during much of the sentencing hearing. She apologized “for the pain and stress that my actions have caused. … I want to make it absolutely clear that I take full accountability for every boundary that was crossed. I hope that your family has been able to begin to heal and find some peace in your life again.”
The boy’s father told the court the breadth and depth of the damage caused by Bergmann is impossible to convey in a victim impact statement. He said his son gets bullied at school and hears whispering as he walks through the hallways, like, “Oh, is that the kid that got his teacher in trouble?”
The boy has gone to counseling for anxiety and also deals with nightmares, stress and “is constantly wondering, where did his simple childhood go?” his father said.
A second teacher accused
Bergmann was one of two fifth-grade Rivercrest teachers charged with sex crimes.
Abigail Michelle Faust, 25, of Hudson, also allegedly kissed a fifth-grade boy last year in her classroom at the end of a school day. She also failed to report Bergmann’s sexual misconduct of her student, according to an August criminal complaint in St. Croix County Circuit Court charging her with three felonies.
Also in August, Faust was charged with various felonies in both St. Croix and Washington counties for allegedly sexually assaulting a Washington County 15-year-old boy while working as his family’s nanny.
Faust’s cases are ongoing.
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