Ex-teacher charged with sexually assaulting Twin Cities teen for months while his nanny

A onetime school teacher in Hudson, Wis., charged earlier with sexually pursuing a grade-school boy, is facing new allegations in the Twin Cities of long-running acts of sexual conduct with a teenager while she was his nanny.

Abigail Michelle Faust, 25, of Hudson, who taught fifth grade at Rivercrest Elementary School until she resigned in May 2024, was charged in Washington County District Court last week with third-degree criminal sexual conduct in connection with many months of sexual contact with the boy, starting in December 2023, when he was 14 years old, and continuing until last month.

Faust was arrested Friday in Hudson on charges in St. Croix County of failure to protect a child, causing mental harm to a child, child enticement and sexual misconduct by a school staff member.

She remains jailed Wednesday without bail. Her next court date is Oct. 9 in Wisconsin. The Minnesota Star Tribune has reached out to her attorney for a response to the allegations.

Last year, prosecutors charged another former Rivercrest teacher, 25-year-old Madison Lynn Bergmann, of Lake Elmo, with having sexual contact throughout most of the same school year with a fifth-grade boy who was 10 years old at the time.

Bergmann is charged with first-degree sexual assault with a child under age 13 and also 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. She’s due back in court on Sept. 29.

The boy told police that he and Bergmann had been communicating almost daily and slyly caressing each other, the charges alleged. One day, the charges cited the boy as reporting, Bergmann told him to stay after class. She gave him what he said was his first kiss. He added that they kissed several times in the classroom since March, the charges continued, and also had conversations with Bergmann that turned to them potentially having sex.

In the wake of last month’s charges against Faust, the district administration released a statement that read, “Over the past year, the Hudson School District has strengthened training for staff on professional boundaries with students. A committee of administrators and staff partnered with Wisconsin Awareness to Action, a child sexual abuse prevention organization, to review and refine district policies and procedures that reinforce staff expectations regarding professional boundaries.”

According to the charges against Faust in Wisconsin and Minnesota:

On Aug. 22, a 16-year-old boy and his parents met with a Washington County sheriff’s deputy at their May Township home, where the teenager said he “had a sexual relationship with the family’s nanny,” the complaint read.

In a later statement to police, the teen said Faust has been their nanny since 2021. He said Faust started out by sending him sexually provocative Snapchat messages and photos of her.

In late December or early January, she told the teen they could have sex if he scored five goals during the hockey season. They went to her home in Hudson in January, where she sexually assaulted him, and the acts continued for the next few months.

The assaults with the first teenager continued throughout the summer, including after the charges in Wisconsin were publicly disclosed, until mid-August.

On May 2, 2024, a police detective was at Rivercrest School as part of the investigation into Bergmann, when a student aide told her about Faust being “very close” to a 10-year-old male student, a criminal complaint read. The aide said she often saw the two giggling and flirting, with Faust giving him a lot of attention, including holding hands at times.

The student denied to the detective much of what was being alleged against Faust, including that they kissed and his staying with her alone in class during recess. He acknowledged they held hands but then recanted that admission.

In November 2024, a counselor reported to police that the boy revealed that Faust pushed him against a wall after class and kissed him on the lips and forced him to hug her. In a later interview with police, the boy said he was kissed on the cheek.