A routine traffic stop in Idaho Falls in November 2021 cracked open what investigators describe as one of Minnesota's most extensive child sexual abuse cases, ultimately tying a former Twin Cities teacher and basketball coach to the abuse of more than 120 children. Aaron Hjermstad was already awaiting sentencing for abusing four boys when police pulled him over, a stop that would expose a far larger pattern of alleged crimes stretching back years.
Fox 9 Investigators obtained police video of that traffic stop, which FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul reports led directly to the criminal investigation now linked to Hjermstad. According to the station, Hjermstad was pulled over in Idaho Falls, Idaho, in November 2021 while awaiting sentencing on his original conviction. A search of his rental car turned up laptops, hard drives and other digital evidence that, per the outlet, showed Hjermstad sexually abusing more than 100 young boys at various locations, including his home.
From Four Known Victims to More Than 120
Hjermstad was initially convicted in 2021 of sexually abusing four young boys while working as a teacher and basketball coach, the station's report notes. But the digital evidence recovered from the Idaho stop would lead to what FOX 9 describes as a far-reaching investigation into his crimes and the discovery of dozens of previously unidentified victims.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension analyzed evidence from the Idaho traffic stop and found thousands of videos allegedly showing Hjermstad assaulting children, according to Sahan Journal. Authorities say there could be more than 120 victims represented in videos recovered after Hjermstad fled Minnesota, the outlet reports. A separate Sahan Journal account states that the BCA has identified about 40 victims and believes there are about 80 additional victims, a breakdown that together totals more than 120 potential victims.
Guilty Plea and Life Sentence
Hjermstad pleaded guilty to 12 counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct involving 12 children, agreeing to serve a life sentence in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years, Sahan Journal reports. The case had progressed from an initial 12-year prison sentence tied to the four boys named in his 2021 conviction to the far longer term following the additional counts.
Those 12 additional offenses took place between 2013 and 2021, and all 12 victims were under the age of 13, according to KSTP.
A 2015 Report That Went Nowhere
Court records show the warning signs predated the 2021 traffic stop by years. In May 2015, a 12-year-old student reported that Hjermstad had sexually abused him on three occasions while Hjermstad was employed at Excell Academy Charter School, according to documents from the Minnesota Supreme Court. The school, the state education system, police and a local nonprofit launched four separate investigations after the student came forward, but MPR News reports that none of them resulted in any charges or discipline.
From 2016 to 2020, Mastery School, a charter school in Minneapolis, employed Hjermstad as a licensed physical education teacher, according to the same court record, placing him in another classroom in the years after the unresolved 2015 report. The Minnesota Supreme Court separately reversed and remanded a lower-court decision involving Best Academy, holding that a municipality's hiring decision is not categorically protected by the discretionary-function exception to municipal tort liability — a ruling tied to the broader legal fallout from the case.
