Former teacher in prison for sexually assaulting minors charged with 12 additional counts

A man already serving a prison sentence for sexually assaulting children has been indicted by a grand jury on 12 additional counts of criminal sexual conduct.

The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office (HCAO) on Thursday announced a grand jury indictment charging Aaron Hjermstad, a former coach and teacher at two Minneapolis charter schools, with 12 counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct.

The 12 victims were under the age of 13 and the attacks occurred between 2013 and 2021. Authorities say he had trained many of the children or some of their relatives.

Prosecutors say Hjermstad was a physical education and health teacher at The Mastery School and a basketball coach at Hospitality House Youth Development and Harvest Best Academy. He is already in prison serving a 12-year sentence for sexually assaulting four boys he coached.

Prior to sentencing in those cases, Hjermstad left the state but was arrested in Idaho in December 2021. During the traffic stop, officials found thousands of videos of Hjermstad assaulting children, with some incidents taking place at his home in Brooklyn Center.

Idaho investigators turned the case over to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) for investigation.

“The number of children who were sexually assaulted by Hjermstad is horrific,” Hennepin County said.
Attorney Mary Moriarty: “Hjermstad intentionally harmed children who had every right to trust him as
“Their teacher and coach. We will seek long prison sentences to keep the children of our community safe.”

Each charge carries a possible sentence of up to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

HCAO and BCA are calling on anyone else who has been a victim of Hjermstad to come forward and receive support and resources.

“As a community, we must do more to help abused children come forward and provide them with resources.
“The damage that has been inflicted on them needs to be healed,” Moriarty said. “Abuse is never a child’s fault.”

Harvest Best Academy released the following statement regarding the allegation:

“The allegations contained in the indictment are deeply disturbing and Harvest Best Academy is heartbroken by the harm Aaron Hjermstad has caused our students and other victims. These new charges are an important step toward holding him accountable and ensuring justice is done.”

We want to clarify that Aaron Hjermstad was never an employee of Harvest Best Academy. He worked as a volunteer basketball coach for Best Academy from 2015 to 2020. The allegations span a time period involving potential victims who were not students at our school. We are actively gathering facts, but our hearts go out to all those affected by these alleged heinous acts.

At Harvest Best Academy, our priority is to create a safe and supportive environment for all students to thrive. We take the hiring process very seriously and comply with all state requirements for background checks. We regret that the state system we rely on did not provide updated information that would have disqualified Hjermstad from volunteering and prevented him from causing further harm.

Harvest Best Academy is a tuition-free public charter school in Minneapolis dedicated to building strong foundations for students to graduate from high school, succeed in college, and pursue meaningful careers. As one of Minnesota’s highest-performing schools for African American students, we foster a culture of high expectations and celebrate academic achievement.”

EYWITNESS NEWS has reached out to Hospitality House Youth Development for comment but has not yet received a response.

RELATED: Basketball coach accused of sexually assaulting players was previously investigated

This comes after a former Harvest Best Academy teacher was recently charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in 2016 and 2017.