Twin Cities Middle School Teacher Sexually Assaulted 2 Boys: Police

HENNEPIN COUNTY, MN — A middle school teacher sexually assaulted two boys more than 100 times over the course of several years in the Twin Cities metro, according to charges filed Thursday.

Matthew A. Bertsch, 28, of Richfield, faces two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of producing pornography with a minor. If convicted, he faces up to 25 years in prison and a $35,000 fine.

On Tuesday, police arrested Bertsch on the campus of the FAIR School in Crystal, according to Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges. He is currently being held at the Hennepin County Jail on $300,000 bail.

Bertsch was a teacher at Plymouth Middle School last year, Hodges said.

On Aug. 3, a Bloomington police officer took a walk-in report from a father and his two children, both of who are now young adults.

The abuse began when one of them was about 10 years old, and the other was about 11 years old, according to the criminal complaint. Bertsch was 20 years old when the abuse began, police said.

Bertsch abused the two children primarily in their father's basement at his home in Bloomington, investigators said.

There were estimated to be more than 100 different instances of abuse, according to the criminal complaint. The children were abused well into their teenage years, police said.