Wisconsin Teacher Pleads Guilty to Maintaining Inappropriate Relationship with an 11-Year-Old Boy
Madison Bergmann was in a relationship with an 11-year-old student, allegedly meeting them in the classroom, during lunch, or after school.
A former elementary school teacher in western Wisconsin has pleaded guilty to charges stemming from an inappropriate relationship she had with a student.
Madison Bergmann of Lake Elmo, Minnesota, He pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual misconduct and one count of enticing a child to delinquency, according to court documents.
The court accepted Bergmann's plea and dismissed all other charges against the 25-year-old. Her sentencing is scheduled for December 22.
She had several additional charges dismissed, including first-degree sexual assault of a child, use of a computer to facilitate a child sex offense, exposing a child to harmful depictions, and additional charges of sexual misconduct by school personnel and enticing a minor, records show.
Bergmann resigned from her position as a fifth-grade teacher at River Crest Elementary School in Hudson, Wisconsin, in May of last year after the 11-year-old victim's parents and later law enforcement discovered disturbing text messages between the two. The victim was a former student of Bergmann's.
The abuse the boy suffered was exposed when the fifth-grader's mother overheard her son on the phone with the teacher, according to her criminal complaint.
After going through the boy's phone, his parents discovered lewd messages between the two, which discussed various encounters inside the classroom, during lunch, and after school.
The teacher allegedly told the boy how much she enjoyed being touched and kissed. The boy's father, angry, stormed the school with printouts of the conversations, authorities said.
When police searched Bergmann's classroom, they found a folder with the victim's name on it containing handwritten love notes about how much they kissed.
She was supposed to get married in July 2024, but the wedding was canceled. The heinous accusations stunned groom-to-be Sam Hickman, The New York Post reported.
In one of her final letters, Bergmann wrote:"One of my cousins ??is in fifth grade and I can't imagine a man speaking to her the way we do. I know we have a special relationship and I love you more than anyone in the world, but I need to be an adult and stop," the charges state.