A onetime Hopkins elementary school employee has admitted to sexually touching female students.
One day after his 55th birthday, David Joseph Madrigal pleaded guilty Wednesday in Hennepin County District Court to second-degree criminal sexual conduct in connection with the encounters at Eisenhower Elementary School, located at 1001 Hwy. 7.
Madrigal, while employed as a student support specialist, touched at least two students, and investigators found sex-oriented websites on his computer, along with Post-it notes referencing other sex-themed websites.
The plea agreement calls for five years of probation, incarceration for 90 days and submission to a psychosexual evaluation.
He remains jailed ahead of sentencing on Sept. 6.
The plea agreement also means Madrigal, of Minneapolis, could be granted what is called a "stay of imposition," meaning that the felony conviction on his record can be reduced to a misdemeanor if he complies with the terms of probation.
Before joining the Hopkins School District, he worked as a special education assistant for the Minneapolis Public Schools from 2005 to 2014, when he resigned in lieu of being fired for showing up to work intoxicated and swearing at a student.
On April 6, counselors at Eisenhower received an anonymous letter advising them that Madrigal, who joined the school in 2015, had for much of that school year been touching sixth-graders "in a manner that made them feel scared." Officials identified the students who wrote the letter and removed Madrigal from the school.
