Madison Bergmann (left inset) in a Croix County jail mug shot, (right) River Crest Elementary the school where she taught (WCCO/screengrab)
An engaged elementary school teacher faces a child sexual assault charge in Wisconsin after letters in her backpack allegedly revealed that she had told an 11-year-old student “I do love you more than anyone in the world.”
Madison Bergmann, a 24-year-old from St. Paul, Minn., now on leave from her River Crest Elementary School job in Hudson, Wisc., was arrested Wednesday accused of first-degree sexual assault of a child under the age of 13, a class B felony technically punishable by up to 60 years in prison upon conviction.
The illicit activity was discovered earlier in the week, when the victim’s parents discovered that their son had been communicating with Bergmann nearly every day since he got her phone number on a skiing trip during winter break, WCCO reported. The victim’s parents learned their son and the suspect were talking on the phone after school on Monday, leading them to confiscate his phone and report the evidence of sexual abuse they found, the local CBS affiliate added.
Authorities allege that letters inside a folder in the defendant’s backpack showed the engaged teacher telling the child victim she loved him “more than anyone in the world.”
“One of my cousins is in the 5th grade and I can’t imagine a man talking to her how we talk. I know we have a special relationship and I do love you more than anyone in the world but I have to be the adult here and stop,” Bergmann allegedly said.
In one alleged text exchange, the victim said, “Haha bro I just want to make out with you.” The teacher is accused of replying with, “I do too! Like alllll the time.”
Charging documents reportedly said that Bergmann’s notes tell the boy “she loves him, wants to kiss him, he turns her on and that she is obsessed with him.”
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St. Croix County court records reviewed by Law&Crime show that Bergmann appeared before Judge Edward Vlack on Thursday and her bond was set at $25,000. As of Friday, jail records do not show Bergmann in custody.
The judge ordered Bergmann to have “absolutely NO CONTACT” with the alleged victim or anyone under the age of 18. She is also barred from contacting students at Rivercrest Elementary School.
“The term ‘no contact’ is hereby defined as no contact in person, by telephone, by way of electronic device, email, facsimile, social media including but not limited to texting, Facebook, Twitter, contact through the mail, and/or through a third person,” the judge explained.
The defendant must also be subjected to GPS monitoring while out on bond, limiting her to traveling “no more than 100 miles from Hudson, WI,” which is located right across from Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., separated by the St. Croix River.
The docket in Bergmann’s case shows that there is a status conference set for May 30, just before noon, as well as a preliminary hearing at 9 a.m. on June 14.
Law&Crime reached out to Bergmann’s defense attorney of record Joseph Tamburino, but he declined to comment.
The school district reportedly called the Bergmann case “deeply troubling for all of us.”
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